Five Minute Window
by gillyflower34
Summary: Alternate version of Gone For Good. RickyJo gets to the roof five minutes sooner. Instead of staying with Daryl and the Atlanta group, she ends up in Woodbury with Merle.
1. Chapter 1

****This story is picking up after RickyJo jumped Glenn and took off in the sports car he got out of Atlanta in. When she got to the roof, Merle was already gone. But what if she had gotten there 5 minutes earlier? In time to catch him before he fled the building? This will be a sort of through the mirror darkly version of Gone for Good. I put this chapter up here so people that followed Gone for Good would get the notification. But the rest will be in the story titled Five Minute Window. I hope you all enjoy.**

 **I own nothing from TWD, only my own OC and original parts of the story. Rated M for violence, sexual content and adult themes. ****

The car alarm was loud. The sound was deafening. Earth shattering. It was making her head pound and her ears ring. It was making it hard for her to think. Such a loud noise was making her want to panic. Panic and bail out on this stupid idea. Go back to camp and get Daryl. They could look for Merle together. She had been crazy to think taking off on her own was ever a good idea.

She saw the Woolworth building. Right where she knew it would be. But there were so many geeks. Too many. More than she would ever be able to take on. And the horrible noise of the car alarm was drawing them right to her. _Think of something quick or you are going to die._ The noise. There had to be a way she could use it to her advantage.

RickyJo slowed the car down. Watching for an alley that was not full to the brim with flesh eating cannibals. The next one had more dead in it than she would like. But it would have to do. She turned the car, sliding it between the buildings. Then she slammed the gas, running over the geeks that were stumbling around. For good measure, she backed up and ran them over again. Then she yanked up hard on the shifter, putting the car into park. RickyJo grabbed her pack, swinging it up onto her back as she leaped from the car.

The dead were starting to fill into the alley behind her, so there was no going back that way. She had to move forward. Down the alley and through a fence that someone had already slashed a hole in. Maybe Glenn the last time he was here. The car alarm was still blaring, but at least it wasn't right next to her now. Stabbing a geek that was on the other side of the fence, she thought about climbing a ladder. Maybe she could wait on the small platform until the noise from the car gathered most of the geeks away from her. But she wanted to get to Merle. She need to find him and make sure he was alright.

So instead of hiding and waiting, RickyJo fought her way through. Taking down geeks with her knife and her bow, it was easier than she thought since most of them were more interested in the loud sound of the car alarm then they were in a quiet girl ducking through the streets. She hit the side of the building she was looking for, feeling so excited that she almost wanted to kiss the graffiti covered brick. Instead she climbed.

Not looking down. That was the trick. Hand over hand, up the ladder. If her grip slipped, at least it would be the fall that killed her. Her ears were ringing, like she had just come out of one of the stupid rock concerts that Daryl liked to drag her to. The beat of her heart was pounding in her chest. It was hard to make out over the ring in her ears, but she swore she could hear someone screaming. A muffled scream, like the person had something in their mouth.

Merle's voice. She would know it anywhere. Even muffled through the belt he was biting down on. Her first thought was that he was being eaten. Devoured alive by those fucking monsters. Then she was afraid some other group came. Maybe they were hurting him or torturing him for information. If that was the case they were all going to die slow.

RickyJo hit the top of the ladder, her hands slick with sweat. She hauled herself over the edge, feeling like the weight of the world dropped off her shoulders as soon as her boots hit the solid cement of the rooftop.

"Merle!," she hollered for the man. She stopped, trying to listen for him. There was not a giant pack of walkers on the roof, so that was a good sign. And she didn't hear or see any other people around. "Merle!," she called for him again. Then she heard it. A weird grunting noise.

It was coming from over by a long set of pipes. She walked that way, an arrow drawn just in case. When she saw his boots sticking out from under the pipes, RickyJo forgot caution and ran for him. He was holding his wrist with one hand, rocking back and forth and moaning to himself. She blinked her eyes a few times, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.

Where Merle's hand should be there was nothing but a bloody jagged stump. Some blood was spattered on the ground. Next to him there was a saw. A serrated saw, the kind a person might use to cut through a thick rope. There was blood on the saw. A loud noise next to her feet startled RickyJo, and she realized it was her bow and arrow. She had dropped them and let them clatter to the ground. A few inches away from the saw was Merle's severed hand.

When her hands hit the concrete roof, that's when she knew she had fallen down onto her knees. She felt her stomach cramp up and then she was emptying it's contents onto the roof next to her bow. She sat back, feeling stunned. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she stared at Merle. And he just stared back at her, like he wasn't sure she was real. He looked down at his severed hand and quickly looked back at RickyJo. Her eyes were full of pain and fear, and somehow it helped.

"Got to stop the bleeding," he said. There was nothing else to say. He had not expected her to come for him. Merle figured those chicken shits would tell her and Daryl that he got ate up or something. And even if they told the truth about leaving him here on the roof, he hadn't beleived that anyone would come for him. That anyone gave a shit about his sorry ass.

His words woke RickyJo up from her trance. She wiped at her mouth again, then got to her feet. Her hands shook at little when she grabbed for her bow. But when she touched him, they were soft and gentle. She stroked his face, just for a second, looking into his eyes. But thank god she was not looking at him like she pitied him. Merle could not have stood it. The shared pain and fear he could stomach. Then she got her elbow under his armpit and dragged him up onto his feet.

"Can you walk?," she asked. He nodded. His face was horribly red with sunburn, and his lips were dry and cracked. RickyJo stopped and got a bottle of water from the side pocket of her pack. Twisting off the cap, she held it to his lips so he could drink it without letting the pressure off his wrist. He gulped down a few swigs, then she put the bottle back. If he chugged down too much too fast it would just make him sicker.

She walked ahead of him, her bow drawn. Inside the building, she killed two walkers. She knew she had to find something to stop the bleeding. But she wasn't sure what she was even looking for. Medical supplies of some kind? A magic wand she could wave and put him back together? A really large bottle of superglue?

Merle found the pan and the cans of sterno fluid in a small kitchen area. The little cans that people used sometimes to keep food warm at a buffet. RickyJo stared at him for a few moments before she realized what he wanted to do. Cauterize his wound.

"No." That was all she could say. The thought of sticking a burning pan to the end of his bloody wrist was more than she could stomach. She put a hand to her middle, feeling like she was going to hurl again.

"If ya don't do it," he said, his voice dry and scratchy, "I'll bleed to fuckin' death RickyJo." She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a long slow breath in and blowing it out. When she opened her eyes, Merle could see the determination on her face. She got a lighter out of her pocket and lit the little cans of sterno. Then she held the small pan over the flame. The pan felt like it was taking forever to get hot. It was giving her too much time to think about what she was about to do. She spit on the pan to make sure it was hot enough to burn instantly. Her spit sizzled up like bacon grease.

"Look away," she said. She expected an argument, but Merle let her grab his forearm and turned his head away. She held his arm so tight that later there would be skinny little RickyJo sized fingerprint bruises on it in the shape of her hand. Then she pushed the hot pan hard against the bloody stump of his wrist.

She didn't know which was worse, the smell or the sound. Or the sight of Merle with tears in his eyes. Merle, who never cried. He must just be sweating with his eyes, she thought. The joke was so innapropriate, given the circumstances, that hysterical laughter almost started bubbling out of her like a volcano. But she bit down hard on her lip, tasting the tang of blood in her mouth.

Merle sat down on a ratty couch, holding his arm and trying no to pass out. RickyJo went to the window and looked out. The sound of the car alarm could still be heard, but through the glass it sounded further away. The walkers were drawn to the noise. Which left most of the streets clear. Their best chance to get out of this place would be if they left now.


	2. Chapter 2

Five Minute Window

Chapter 2

Digging into her pack, she found the bottle of pills she was looking for. Pushing down on the cap with her shaky fingers, the bottle shot out and landed on the floor, rolling away from her. RickyJo bent down and snatched it back up, twisting at the top again and only dropping the lid this time. She tilted the bottle, counting how many pills were left. Then she shook two of the round green pills into her palm.

"You been holding out on me," Merle complained. He was leaning back on the ratty couch, a sheen of sweat breaking out across his forehead.

"Yeah, and its a good thang I did or there wouldn't be any for your dumb ass to take now," RickyJo informed him. His instinct was to reach out with his right hand first. But it was no longer attached to his arm. He sighed and held out his other hand for the pills. RickyJo flipped her hand sideways so they fell into his one good palm.

"Two?," he asked her, scrunching up his face. He was hoping for three at the least.

"They are 80 mil oxys," she countered. That was more than enough to get a damn horse high. Merle wasn't getting any more than that at once, not from her anyway. She was going to have to ration them out until his hand started to heal. And that meant watch her bag or hide them somewhere else so he didn't take them all.

Seeing that was all he was going to get from her, Merle tossed the pills into his mouth. RickyJo could hear them knocking against his teeth. She didn't have to ask what he was doing, she already knew. Sucking off the time release coating on the pills. Since he wasn't chewing them up or trying to snort them, she decided to keep her mouth shut about it, handing him the rest of the water she had in her bag

Wating for the pain pills to start working, she returned to her perch at the window. The herd in the streets was thinning out, as more of the walkers were drawn towards the car alarm. They needed to get out of this building, and this was the best chance they were going to get. There was no water here, and no food. If Merle passed out here, things were going to get bad. She would be forced to stay with him and starve, or leave him alone to go find supplies. And neither of those sounded like appealing options.

Merle leaned back on the couch, his eyes drifting towards RickyJo. The pain pills had not hit him full force yet, but he could feel the relaxing sensation he always got as the drugs started to work their way into his system. RickyJo was resting against the window frame, her body tense with stress. She was still in the clothes she had worn the morning before when she left to go hunting with Daryl. That meant they had to hole up somewhere for the night.

Nothing happened between them. Nothing ever happened between the Daryl and RickyJo, besides that bullshit in Mexico. But Merle felt a stab of jealousy and anger course through his body just from thinking about it. Now that he had been inside her, the need to possess her burned like a hot ball of fire down in his gut. She leaned close to the window, pressing her forehead against the glass so she could see straight down to the street below.

"We should go now," she said, the statement coming out sounding more like a question. What she asked was unspoken. Obvious. Can you walk? Are you going to be able to make it?

Merle nodded and got to his feet. RickyJo unlatched the window, which led out onto a metal fire escape. They had lucked out there. But on the more unlucky side of things, the window was stuck and she ended up being forced to grab a chair and smash the glass. Climbing out onto the metal perch, they waited to make sure the noise of the window breaking wasn't going to attract more geeks. It did, but soon enough they wandered back in the direction of the car alarm.

RickyJo went down the ladder first. She killed the few walkers that were shuffling around with her bow and then pulled her arrows back out so she could use them again. There was a gun tucked into the back of her pants, but she only planned to use it if she had no other choice. And the extra bullets she had for it were back at camp.

Climbing down a ladder with only one hand was no easy task. But once Merle felt RickyJo's hand on his back, he knew he made it. His boots hit the pavement and he felt a wave of dizzyness pass over him. He shook his head, trying to clear it. If he had not taken those pills, he would have passed out from the pain on the way down.

Merle thought RickyJo would try to take him back to the camp at the quarry. He didn't think he would be able to make that far of a walk, but he was going to try. She put a hand on his shoulder and looked at him, the concern plain in her eyes. Her eyebrows knitted together. Then she nodded in the other direction and motioned for Merle to follow her.

He was breathing hard, only able to concentrate on the next few steps in front of him. Even with the pills, the dehydration in combination with the blood loss were becoming too much for him. They took a few turns, heading down alleys and staying close to the buildings. It wasn't until Merle saw the old familiar windows that he knew where they were. RickyJo's apartment building. They were home.

The front door was barricaded from the inside, and so was the back exit. So that left the fire escape. Another ladder to climb. RickyJo jumped up, trying to catch the fire escape ladder and pull it down. Merle was sagging against the building, looking like he was ready to puke, die or do both at the same time. So he was not going to be able to help. She dragged a dumpster, which thankfully had wheels, down the street and climbed on top of it. From there she could reach the ladder easily.

The metal ladder dropped to the ground, bouncing against the pavement and making a lot of noise. They were a lot further away from the car alarm now. So the sound of the ladder had every geek on the block rushing at them in a pack. RickyJo looked down. Merle was sagged against the side of the building with his eyes rolling back in his head.

"Fuckin' hell," she swore, jumping down and trying to haul him up onto his feet. She slapped him hard across the face. He still looked out to lunch, but at least his eyes were open. The walkers were getting closer. So close now that RickyJo could smell the rot and decay. "You have to climb!," she yelled right into his face. Shoving him against the ladder, she yelled again, "CLIMB!"

To Merle's credit, he climbed. He didn't climb fast, but RickyJo put her hands on the ladder and climbed right behind him so that her chest was pressing into his back. She fought the urge to tell him to hurry up, feeling the panic rising up in her chest as the dead got closer and closer. She felt the fingers of a few dead hands brush against her ankle, but they didn't grab her. She made it. Merle collapsed on the balcony and RickyJo pulled the ladder up.

Since there was no immediate threat on the balcony, RickyJo left Merle where he lay and climbed the stairs to the large bay window that led into her apartment. On her way up, she peeked into the window of her downstairs neighbor. He was inside, but not exactly himself anymore. The dead, disembowled body of his live in girlfriend was in the middle of the room. Seeing RickyJo moving around on the balcony brought him over, where he pressed his walker body against the glass, moaning and hissing and trying to get to her warm flesh. RickyJo sighed.

"Hi Davis," she said to the man. She wondered what happened to his cat, then decided she would rather not know. RickyJo got to the window of her apartment. It slid up and opened easily. She smiled and laughed a little to herself, thinking about all the times she got after Daryl for leaving it unlocked when he was going in and out to smoke. She stepped in, careful to stay quiet. This was home, but that didn't mean she was going to let her guard down. She checked each room for geeks, not allowing herself to relax until she was sure nothing was inside.

Now she just needed to get Merle up the steps and into her apartment. She climbed back down the clanging metal steps and tried to wake him up. Even a few light slaps to the face did nothing. He was dead to the world. She didn't want to yell at him either, since the noise would just draw more walkers. RickyJo sighed and stuffed her arms under his armpits, locking her elbows. It took her about half an hour, but she managed to drag the heavy man up the stairs and down the hall, taking a few breaks to curse at him for being such a fat ass bastard. She put him in her bed and took off his boots. Then she plopped down onto the bed herself and wiped at the sweat on her face.

Allowing herself a few minutes to rest, RickyJo looked over at the man next to her. There was sweat beading up on his forehead and he looked flushed. She reached over and pressed one slender wrist to his forehead.

"Fuckin' double fuck," she swore. He felt like a damn furnace. She wasn't an expert on feeling for a pulse, but his didn't sound good. Thready. That was the word they used on Grey's Anatomy. That stupid ass show Jessica got her hooked on. Merle needed to go to a hospital. And since that wasn't an option, he at least needed antibiotics and fluids. RickyJo got up, pacing back and forth across the room.

She tried to think of what to do, but her brain felt like it had enough for the day. Where was the closest place she could go to get medicine? How was she going to get out of the building? Where in the fuck was Daryl? He should have found them by now. That pouty ass motherfucker. She would forgive him for calling her a whore if he showed up now. As she paced, flashes of her downstairs neighbor kept invading her mind. The way he looked pressed up against the glass, his face covered in the dried blood of his dead girlfriend.

Huffing in frustration, RickyJo kicked at her dresser. The toe of her boot left a scuff mark, next to all the other scuff marks. That dresser was good for kicking. Then suddenly, it came to her. Davis. The downstairs neighbor. That undead douche was a damn paramedic. He had to have been the one that barricaded the downstairs doors. And if he was planning to lock himself inside the building, RickyJo bet he had brought some medical supplies with him.


	3. Chapter 3

Five Minute Window

Chapter 3

His memories of the last few days were foggy at best. Merle remembered being handcuffed to the roof. He could remember cutting his own hand off. The pain. But after that things got blurry and confusing. The only thing he could remember clearly after that was RickyJo's face. The space around her was out of focus, but she had been there. Kissing his forehead after she wiped it down with a damp cloth. Stroking the stubble on his face and looking down at him, her eyebrows knitted together making a little wrinkle form between her eyes. Kneeling by the side of the bed, her hands pressed together like she was praying even though praying was begging and she never begged. Not for anything.

Merle reached his hand up to scrub at his face but there was no hand on the end of his wrist. He bumped the stump end of his arm against his chin and hissed at the sharp pain that radiated through him. Bringing his left hand up, he rubbed his eyes. There was a pinching pain in the crook of his elbow. He looked at his arm, seeing that the cause of the pinch was an IV needle. The clear tubing ran up into a bag half full of liquid that was attached to the headboard of the bed with a wire coat hanger.

There was a sheet draped over him, but other than that he was naked as the day he was born. He felt sore. And his arm hurt like a sonofabitch. But other than that, he didn't feel too bad. He was even hungry, which was a good sign. Pushing carefully with his elbows and wiggling his hips back, he managed to get himself into a sitting postion, leaning back against the headboard of the bed. Just that small amount of effort made him feel dizzy, and he wondered how long he had been passed out.

RickyJo had dragged Daryl's easy chair in from the living room. She had shut the bedroom door and then shoved the chair up against it. Must have been afraid of someone or something coming in after them, Merle thought. She was fast asleep, tilted back in the chair and covered with a throw blanket. There was a scrawny looking cat asleep in her lap. Leaning up against the wall next to her chair was RickyJo's bow. And on the small table next to her, there was a loaded handgun. Next to the gun, there was a ratty looking paperback book, a jar of peanut butter with a spoon sticking out of it, and a plastic jar shaped like a teddy bear that was still half full of honey.

Merle felt himself crack a smile before he could stop himself. RickyJo and her nasty peanut butter and honey sandwiches. She used to fry them up in butter and get Daryl to eat them with her. If she was really high, she would dip them in vanilla ice cream.

Looking down, it suddenly occured to Merle that he was in RickyJo's bed. He had never been in her bed before. He doubted any man had. Despite the pain in his arm, he felt himself getting aroused just thinking about it. He also realized that if he didn't get up soon, he was going to piss himself in RickyJo's bed. Which was a decidedly less arousing thought.

The IV was still in his arm. He couldn't get up without taking it out. And he couldn't take it out, since he didn't have another hand. Merle had no choice except to wake up RickyJo and ask for some help.

"RickyJo," Merle said, trying not to be too loud. She might have the door braced shut for a reason. The woman didn't even flinch. The cat opened it's eyes and looked over at Merle. Deciding the man posed no threat, the cat stretched it's legs out and closed it's eyes again. "RickyJo!," Merle called to her, slightly louder this time. She still didn't budge. There was half a bottle of water sitting next to the side of the bed. Merle grabbed it and hurled it at her chest. The cat leaped up, it's fur fluffing out from it's body like it was ready for Halloween before it took off under the bed.

RickyJo leaped up, tangling her legs up in the footrest of the chair and almost falling on her face. She got to her feet. When she saw that Merle was awake, her face broke out into a huge smile. Rushing towards him, she crawled across the bed and hugged him tight around the neck.

"Get this thing out of my arm," Merle ordered, "I gotta take a piss." He held up his arm, gesturing to the IV tubing. RickyJo sat back, looking skeptical. It had been a fucking bitch to get that thing into his arm the right way. And she didn't want to have to do it again.

"Got to the bathroom with it in. If you can keep some food and water down _then_ I'll take it out," she said. Merle gave her a dirty look, but he had to piss too bad to waste anymore time arguing. She grabbed the IV bag and held it up in the air, then followed him towards the bathroom.

When he kicked the sheet off, he forgot about being totally naked underneath it. Not that RickyJo had not seen it all before. When he got drunk, he liked to whip it out and expose himself to her. It made her shriek like a little girl. But right now, with one half bloody stump arm and an IV hanging out of the other, he just felt self concious and exposed. Vulnerable. He was grateful when RickyJo hung the IV on the top of the door and made herself scarce.

Once he ate a pop tart and drank some water, RickyJo kept her promise and took the IV out. Then she gave Merle half of one pain pill, being careful not to let him see where she had them hidden. He thought about telling her she was being stingy, but changed his mind. She had dark circles under her eyes and her hair was piled into a sloppy bun. There was dried blood under her fingernails and he realized she had run herself ragged keeping him alive.

"How long was I out?," he asked her. They were sitting near the balcony window, which was cracked open, passing a cigarette back and forth.

"Two days," she told him. She paused, lifting her finger to chew at the skin on her thumb. A disgusting habit she and Daryl shared. RickyJo stared out the window, her eyes unfocused. Then she turned back to him. "It was bad. For a minute there I thought you weren't going to make it," she added. Her voice shook when she spoke, and Merle could hear the fear behind her words. He handed the cig back to her, then lifted his hand to touch her face. Mid movement, he changed his mind and put his hand back in his lap.

"Thanks," he told her instead. She raised an eyebrow, trying to decide if he was fucking with her. Merle almost never said thank you for anything. From the look in his face, she could tell he had never been more sincere in his life.

He wished he could think of something better to say. RickyJo almost died to save him. And that was more than anyone had ever done for Merle Dixon in all his life. He owed her.

She leaned forward, pressing her lips against his. The kiss took him by surprise. It was chaste, but it made the thoughts he had been having earlier about being the first man in her bed drift back into his mind. RickyJo pulled back, wrinkling up her nose.

"Merle," she said, "I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you stink. Bad." She grinned at him. Then she took one more drag off the almost gone cigarette before holding it over so he could do the same. She reached out the window and flicked the butt down at the walkers still milling around below.

The water in her apartment was no longer running. But it had rained the day before. RickyJo kicked one of the drain pipes loose that came down from the roof of the building and stuck a five gallon bucket under it. So they had some water they could use to flush the toilet and wash up.

With his arm securely wrapped in a plastic grocery bag so the bandages wouldn't get wet, Merle sat down in the plastic picnic chair that RickyJo had dragged in from the balcony and shoved into her walk in shower. He thought about complaining that he didn't need to be treated like a goddamn baby, but then he saw her pulling all her clothes off and getting ready to get into the shower with him. Plus, he was still feeling more dizzy than he wanted to admit. The last thing he needed to do was pass out and smack his head against something on the way down. A horrible sunburn and a cut off hand were painful enough without adding more injuries to the list.

RickyJo got herself cleaned up first, even leaning forward to dunk her head in the bucket and scrub at her dirty scalp. She knew it was stupid, but having clean hair made her feel so much better. Like things were almost back to normal again, even though that was hardly the case. Dipping a big soft bath sponge in the water, she washed off the rest of her body. RickyJo was trying to pretend she didn't notice, but she was aware that Merle was staring at her naked body. He made no attempt to disguise the fact that he was looking. Instead he just openly stared at her. His eyes trailed up and down her body as his tounge darted out every so often to wet his cracked lips.

Once she felt like she was as clean as she was going to get, RickJo turned her attention to Merle. She had not been kidding around by the window. He was filthy. And the burning fever left him covered in a lot of his own dried on sweat. She dipped the sponge in the bucket again and tossed it into Merle's lap. A little smirk creeped across his face. Whatever wonderful awful idea he had come up with, he was obviously amusing himself.

"Can't you help me?," he asked, holding up the arm with the plastic bag on it, "hard to wash up with my arm all fucked up like this." RickyJo cocked her hand up on her hip, raising an eyebrow at him. He had one good hand. And that was more than enough to be able to wash his own body. He was just trying to get her to do it for him. Because he was a pervert. He already had a big boner that she was trying to ignore. "My arm really hurts," he added.

"I'd have an easier time believing that if you didn't have a bigass shiteatin' grin on yer face right now," RickyJo told him. He shrugged, smiling wider. Merle figured she was going to storm out. Maybe smack his face. But instead RickyJo reached down in his lap and took the sponge back. She squinted her eyes at him. Then she took the long wet rope of her hair and tossed it behind her back. "I know you can do this yourself," she said. The tone of her voice got just a tiny bit lower and softer. Her bedroom voice. The one she had talked to him with when he had been buried deep inside her. The sound of it made his naked dick twitch and throb in his lap. "I'm only helping you because I want to."

Merle only nodded and licked at his lips again, afraid if he spoke it might break whatever spell RickyJo seemed to be under. He closed his eyes at she squeezed the sponge on top of his head, wetting his hair. She used a gentle touch, and was careful not to rub on the spots where his sunburn was the worst. Dipping the sponge in again, she rubbed a drop of soap onto it and cleaned the back of his neck. Then she reached forward, getting his chest and under his arms. One of her breasts bumped against the back of his head.

RickyJo didn't have much experience with men, or with their bodies. This was the best look she had ever gotten at a naked man. Women's bodies were much more delicate and supple. Everything about Merle was the opposite of that. His body was hard under her touch, and scratchy where the hair on his face was growing in. She was silently grateful that she was standing behind him and he couldn't see her face. Her cheeks felt hot and the same blush was creeping across her chest. She felt like she fighting to breathe slowly and evenly, when all she really wanted to do was gasp for breath and clamp her thighs together.

He had to force himself to sit still. What Merle wanted to do was pull RickyJo down into his lap and drive himself deep inside her wet slit. Maybe bend her over and pound into her from behind, where he would be able to see the round curves of her ass and the pattern of butterfly tattoos across her lower back. But he was not that stupid. RickyJo was not some drunk whore. He wanted to fuck her a lot more times than just this once. That meant he had more needs to worry about than just his own selfish ones. And honestly, he was curious as fuck to see what she was going to do to him.

No woman had ever touched him like RickyJo was. She didn't grab or dig her nails into him. At first she only touched him with the damp sponge. But as she went she started getting a little braver. She used the sponge in one hand and ran the other hand slowly over him, caressing his skin. It almost felt like she was blind and using her hand to see what he looked like. She stood behind him and washed his arms and back, leaning forward to rub down over the hard planes of his chest and stomach.

He heard her take a few deep breaths. Then she dipped the sponge into the water again and stepped around to kneel down in front of him. She kept her eyes down, washing his feet off slowly. One at a time. She rinsed the sponge out in the bucket and took his hand in hers. She ran the sponge over the back of it, then turned it over and did the same with his palm. After that she finally looked up at him.

Her eyes were dark with desire, the pupils so large they turned the green of her eyes into a tiny sparkling ring around the outside of her irises. If he had been asked, Merle wasn't sure if he would have been able to describe the look on her face. It seemed like equal parts of both fear and desire were fighting for dominance inside of her. For someone who was so confident and strong willed in all other aspects of her life, she seemed almost timid as she knelt down there in front of him. One hand laid gingerly on his knee, she looked ready to snatch it back if he made any sudden moves. Being with RickyJo in any sexual situation, he always felt a bit like had was trying to tame a frightened wild animal.

"Rinse that off again and lemme have it," he told her, gesturing to the sponge. Her body jerked a little, like he had startled her with the sound of his voice. She did as he asked, handing him the wet sponge. But then she backed off and headed out of the shower, letting the glass door snap shut behind her. Merle stood up and used the sponge to wash off his private area, the only part of his body RickyJo had not explored. His dick was throbbing and his balls felt sore with need. He gave himself a few hard strokes and immediately found his release. There wasn't even much pleasure in the act, it felt more like a release of pressure than an orgasm.

"She slept with you once, she'll do it again," he mumbled to himself. The sexual frustration he felt was palpable, and Merle didn't want it to come bubbling over in the form of anger and aggression towards the woman. Especially after she risked her life to save his. That wouldn't help. He reminded himself that RickyJo was looked like a grown woman, but when it came to sex she was still more like an inexperienced girl. An inexperienced girl that he cared about. She wasn't just some hole to fill. She was his friend. Maybe the only one he had. "Be patient," he hissed under his breath, "just be fuckin' patient."


	4. Chapter 4

Five Minute Window

Chapter 4

The supplies at RickyJo's apartment were not endless. But the time she spent hungry when she was a child turned her into a real packrat. She always slept better when the pantry in her apartment was full. Back normal life, her obsessive need to have lots of food in the house had been an embarrassing secret for her. Now that the world had ended, it was a blessing. She and Merle were stuck in her apartment, but they had at least a few more weeks before they needed to worry about starving or going thirsty.

Merle took the pain pills RickyJo rationed out for him and tried to behave and not to ask for more unless he really needed them. His wrist still throbbed, but the wound was healing without any further signs of infection. RickyJo had been sleeping in the same bed with him at night, they both felt safer that way. But to his absolute dissatisfaction, nothing else sexual had happened between them since the day she got into the shower with him. She had been keeping him at arms length since then, not touching him any more than she absolutely had to.

Merle laid around in bed until he was finally driven out by the need to relieve himself. He fumbled at the ties on the pajama pants he had on with his only remaining hand, cursing under his breath. He finally managed to get them tied, but not as tight as he would like. The pants hung low off his hips. He padded into the living room on his bare feet, scrubbing at the stubble on his face and thinking about how he needed another shave. RickyJo was no where to be found, which made his stomach flip flop in momentary panic. Then he laughed at himself and shrugged it off, figuring she must have gone up to the roof.

The roof was set up like a patio, and while the hot tub was non operational, RickyJo had been going up there to lay around in the pool chairs or to try and shoot pigeons with her bow. She actually got one the day before and had felt it was necessary to shake him awake from the nap he was taking and shove the dead bird into his face. _Lookit what I got!_ She stuffed that hoss in the smoker and used the last bit of propane to cook it up. _Not pigeon, squab, once it's dead it's fucking gourmet._ He didn't know gourmet, but that pigeon tasted a lot better than cold canned beans, that was for damn sure.

The window to the balcony was cracked open and Merle slipped his hand through the crack, preparing to push it open and head up to join RickyJo on the roof. He froze in place, his body tense with his hand gripping the window. He heard a strange noise coming from the kitchen. Like someone gasping for breath. Or the hiss of a walker. It made the hair on his arms stand up. Cocking his head to one side, he listened to see if he heard anything else. There it was again. The same weird gasping noise. He had not really been worried about RickyJo, but now he was afraid for her.

Darting back down towards the bedroom, Merle grabbed the handgun that was lying on the small table on his side of the bed. It felt awkward to hold it in his left hand, but he knew he would still be able to hit was he was aiming for. He headed for the kitchen, walking as silently as possible. As he came around the bend in the wall he could see the tips of RickyJo's bare feet sticking out from behind the counter. Her toes were still covered in the chippped hot pink nail polish that one of the little girls back at the quarry had painted on them. Hello Kitty Pink.

His chest tightened up and Merle found he was hesitating, not wanting to see what was on the other side of the counter. It hit him like a punch straight in the gut. Not that he didn't already know he cared about her, but he realized right then that if something happened to RickyJo it would kill him. He was afraid for her. The only person he had ever felt that way about before was his brother. Another small gasping noise rose up from the kitchen floor, pushing him forward. He had his gun ready, pointing at whatever was on the other side of that counter.

Merle wasn't sure what he expected to find. But there was no lurking danger in the kitchen. RickyJo was sitting on the kitchen floor, her arms around her knees. She was crying, and she looked like she was trying to be quiet about it, which accounted for the weird gasping noises that had alarmed him. He set his gun down on the counter with a clank.

Her head popped up and her whole body convulsed in a shutter. She had not heard Merle approaching and the sound of him setting the gun on the counter startled her. Her face was a mess, all blotchy and wet from her tears. Once she saw it was him, she ducked her face back into her knees.

"Just leave me alone," she said, her words coming out all muffled and rough sounding. It was bad enough that she was having a total breakdown, she didn't need to have it in front of Merle. She tried to take a deep breath, but it was past that point. Trying to get control of herself just made her start to sob all over again. She had her head down, but she could see Merle's bare feet, sticking out from under his plaid pajama bottoms. And he did not look like he was going anywhere.

Merle looked down at the woman. She was a sobbing mess and he was thinking about doing exactly what she told him to do and leave her alone. Maybe he should go up on the roof or back to the bedroom until she calmed down. Dealing with a crying ass sobbing woman was not something he wanted to do. He didn't even know where to start. The last time he saw RickyJo lose it like this was years ago when he had to tell her that her Poppa was in the hospital.

Shifting his weight from one foot to the other, Merle rubbed at the stubble on his face. He looked down at RickyJo. She was fucking crying even harder now. He picked up one foot and nudged at her with the side of it.

"What's wrong with ya?," he asked her.

"N... N... Nothing," she insisted, her voice hitching and ragged between her sobs.

Nothing my ass, he thought. Backing away at little, Merle leaned against the opposite counter and tried to figure out what to do. At his knew vantage point, he could see there was a picture lying face down on the floor under her knees. He reached down and snatched it up. Then he sighed. It was an old picture of RickyJo and Daryl at the zoo with Jessica's two daughters. Daryl had the younger girl up on his shoulders and she was eating a giant ice cream cone that looked ready to drip all over him. His arms were around RickyJo and Cassie. They all had big smiles on their faces. Merle set the picture down on the counter. Then he knelt down next to RickyJo.

Women were hard to understand, and Merle had never spent much time trying to figure them out. But being upset because your whole family might be dead at least seemed sane and reasonable to him. He reached over, hesistated a moment, and then put his hand on RickyJo's back. She choked on another sob, and he was tempted to snatch his hand back. But instead he kept his hand where it was, rubbing his thumb back and forth over one of her old faded cigarette burn scars.

"They're at your Nana's place," Merle reminded her, "they're gonna be fine." He knew it was a lie, but saying anything else about her neices seemed wrong. And who knew, maybe they were fine. They had high walls and plenty of food, which put them in a better postion than most people. He was hoping his words would make RickyJo feel better, but she just kept on with her crying like he wasn't even there. Merle was uncomfortable and he didn't feel like he was helping her. He was frustrated and ready to give up and walk away. Finally RickyJo spoke up in her sobby little voice.

"That's not..." She hiccuped and sucked in another ragged breath. "That's not what I'm cryin' about," she finally spit out. Well now at least we are getting somewhere, Merle thought. He stood up and grabbed a handful of paper towels off the roll. He shoved them into RickyJo's hands and sat down next to her, grabbing her by one arm and pulling her into his lap.

She lay her head against his bare chest, feeling better with his arms around her than she thought she would. Crying in front of him was still embarrassing, but that feeling was tempered by the comfort of being safe in his arms. He held her close, waiting until her breathing slowed down before he asked her any more questions. She was dressed in what she slept in. A tank top with thin little straps and nothing on the bottom except a skimpy pair of boy shorts. She was in his lap, sitting directly on his dick, and he was trying hard not to think about it. Her legs were long and tan and he wanted to do nothing more than run his hand up and down the length of her thighs.

"Want to tell me what in the hell is the matter?," he asked her once she had mopped up her face with the paper towels. His tone was softer than his words and he was still holding her against his chest, his one hand stroking her hair.

"I'm worried about Daryl," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Daryl can take care of hisself," Merle said. He was more confident about that than he was about her nieces still being alive.

"Then why hasn't he found us yet?," she asked. "It's not like we're hiding." Merle took a moment to think about that. RickyJo had a point. They were in her old apartment. If she and Daryl went missing in downtown Atlanta, this is the first place he would have looked for them. So if Daryl had not found them yet, that meant one of two things. He either wasn't looking for them, or he was dead.

"Maybe he's waiting for us back at camp," Merle suggested.

"Maybe he fuckin' hates me," RickyJo said, sounding like she was gearing up for another crying session.

"He don't hate ya," Merle told her. That was ridiculous. Not only did Daryl not hate her, he pretty much thought the sun rose and shined directly out of her ass.

"He called me a whore," she said. Coming from anyone else, RickyJo would have let the insult roll off her back like water off a duck. But coming from Daryl, it still stung.

Merle couldn't help himself, he tried to hold it in but his body was shaking with laughter. If RickyJo was a whore, he was the president of the united states of america. Fucking woman had only had sex twice in her life. In his opinion, all that messing around with other girls stuff didn't count for shit.

"He called you that 'cause he saw us sleepin' in bed together didn't he?," Merle asked, already knowing the answer before RickyJo nodded her head. Daryl had been huffing around, giving him dirty ass looks that whole morning. That moody little fucker had been looking to start a fight with him. When Merle didn't take the bait, he must have turned his anger on RickyJo and started saying nasty shit to her. Like that was going to make her want to fuck him again. Idiot.

"He either got stuck somewhere or he's waiting for us back at camp," Merle told her. He sounded so sure. And even if he had not been so certain, RickyJo really wanted to believe what he was saying. She had been certain Daryl was going to find them. If Daryl was missing and possibly hurt, she knew she wouldn't rest until she found him. When he didn't show up after a few days, she started worrying. Then she started thinking of all the terrible things that might have happened to him. And then she started to think horrible things about herself. That maybe he didn't show up because he wasn't looking. He didn't care if she was missing. He was pissed off at her and Merle and he didn't care if he ever saw either one of them again. The stress and worry were building up inside her. Then she found that picture in a drawer and all her emotions just came pouring out.

"If he doesn't show up soon, I want to go back to the quarry and make sure he's alright," RickyJo said.

"Not by yerself," Merle told her firmly. She didn't answer but he felt her arms go up around his neck. She held him tight, her body expressing what her lips did not. _I would never go anywhere without you._ He could feel her warm breath on his neck. Moving his legs, he shifted her around in his lap. Since he mentioned them being in bed together, he felt like that was all he could think about. Now he was hard as a rock and the curve of her ass was pressing against him.

He knew she was thinking about the same thing. Her slit was pressed up against the inside of his thigh and he could feel the heat radiating through her thin cotton shorts. He bet if he put a finger inside her shorts he would find her dripping wet. Instead of trying that move, he slid his one good hand down her back and slipped it up under her tank top, rubbing the soft skin on her lower back. Her body went tense, but only for a second. Then she relaxed in his arms again, resting her head on his shoulder.

They sat still for a moment. RickyJo didn't know what happened, but suddenly this had gone from a comforting embrace to something much more intimate. She thought about getting up and heading to the roof to calm down, but it felt too good to be held so close. In fact, everything that was happening felt good. The skin on his neck was silky against her lips and she had the urge to wiggle in his lap so that the hard bulge in his pants would be pressing against the spot between her legs that was hot and throbbing. Her nipples tingled as they tightened up, turning into hard pebbles inside her shirt.

Being close to a man always had an element of fear. RickyJo wasn't even sure what she was afraid of exactly. But she willed that part of her mind to be silent. It was easier to do this time, since they had slept together once before.

She knew he would do most of the work. All she needed to do was show him that she was receptive to his advances. Nuzzling in, she pressed her lips against his neck. She kissed her way up, brushing the tip of her nose against the sensitive spot behind his ear. Then she parted her lips and sucked on his earlobe, nibbling at it gently with her teeth.

For someone that had been sitting as still as a statue, he moved so quick that RickyJo didn't know what was happening until she felt herself being lifted off the floor and pulled into Merle's arms. His hand was on the back of her neck, under her hair and he was kissing her. This was not a soft gentle brush of lips against lips. He ground his mouth on hers, sucking her tounge and biting at her lower lip. She moaned into his mouth, a noise that made him move his hand down to her lower back and pull her hips flush with his.

His hand moved further down, gripping her ass. He thought about lifting her up onto the counter and pushing her panties to the side so he could force himself inside her as fast and hard as possible. But instead he pulled his mouth away from hers and took her hand, leading her down the hall to the bedroom. He was afraid she might change her mind once they got there and take off on him again. But instead she was the one pushing him down onto the bed.

Hooking her thumbs into the waistband, she shoved her shorts down and kicked them off. Then she pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it aside. Those little star tattoos she had on her hips, inside the white tan line of her bathing suit made him harder than he already was. He wanted to trace each one of them with the tip of his tounge the last time they had been together and never gotten the chance. RickyJo was the only girl he had ever continued having fantasies about even after he got her under him. If anything, his dirty thoughts about her got more vivid and frequent after he fucked her than they had been before.

He was sitting on the edge of the bed and she climbed into his lap. This time she was facing him, one knee on either side of him instead of sitting sideways like she had been in the kitchen. When she was with another woman, RickyJo's favorite thing to do was bury her face in the other girls breasts. So she leaned forward, wrapping her arms around Merle's head, and let him do the same to her. From the way he was holding her closer and the noises he was making, she knew he liked it. Men were not really so hard to figure out after all. He sucked one of her nipples into his mouth, and then she was the one that was making noises.

He took his time with her breasts. He had been staring at them for so many years, it felt unbelieveable to finally be able to taste them and touch them. They were full and heavier than they looked, but still soft and natural feeling when he brought his hand around to squeeze one. They smelled like soap and coconut from her suntan lotion.

Lowering her ass down, she sat on his legs and started grinding on his hard length through the fabric of his pants. He could already feel the material starting to get wet where she was pressing on it. Fumbling between them, he managed to get his pants untied and pull his dick out. He lined the tip of it up with her slick opening and then moved his hand to her hips to guide her. When he slid into her, she made the same little suprised gasping noise that she had made the last time he had gotten inside her. And goddamn that shit was the hottest thing he had ever heard. It made him feel like he had the biggest dick on earth. She made the noise again when he rolled her over, flipping her onto her back.

He moved slow until he started to feel her hips rising to meet his thrusts. Then he started moving faster and harder. Each time he pumped into her she felt hotter and wetter. Then he felt it, her nails started digging into his arm and she was arching her back, her walls convulsing around him as she found her release. It was all more than he could take and he felt himself come undone. Not thinking about anything other than how good she felt wrapped around him, he came inside her before he could stop himself. Yanking out quickly, he cursed under his breath. He had not meant to let that happen. That was twice now.

RickyJo was up on her elbows, a look of concern on her face. "What's wrong? Did I bump your wrist?"

"No, I just shot my shit inside of ya. Again." She flopped back onto the bed, her arm over her eyes.

"Is that all?," she moaned. The way he yanked away from her and started cursing, she thought something was really wrong.

"Yer not going ta be saying _is that all_ when ya catch pregnant," he informed her. RickyJo's cousin was about the most fertile woman he knew. Hopefully that shit didn't run in the family.

 **** Of course from Gone For Good we all know that RickyJo is already pregnant from the last time. But in this version of the story she is not going to have the baby. I just wanted to warn everyone about that now so no one gets upset about it later. And I wouldn't get too attached to the neighbor's cat either, lol.**

 **Since RickyJo is with Merle and not with the Atlanta group, just assume Daryl's story is going the same as it did on the show until they all get reunited. Thanks for the reviews everyone and keep them coming. ****


	5. Chapter 5

Five Minute Window

Chapter 5

Time to go. They both knew it was really long past time to go. Neither of them spoke about it, but they had lingered at RickyJo's old apartment much longer than what had originally been decided on. Everyday she said they should leave and go back to the campsite by the quarry. And everyday Merle talked her into waiting and leaving the next day. _Come back to bed with me._ And everyday she let him talk her into it.

Leaving meant facing the outside world again. Killing geeks and lying down to go to sleep at night afraid that you might wake up dead. The apartment felt like a snuggly cocoon. Inside, she had been able to let her guard down, pretend for a few minutes that life was more than hunting and running and killing. But now it was time to go. Daryl had to be horribly worried about them by now. They had been gone two weeks. And two weeks in apocolypse time was almost like two months or even two years of normal life.

The lower level doors of the building were not going to work. Whoever boarded them up did one hell of a good job. To open them again would require a lot of banging and prying off of boards. It would make too much noise. There was no point in opening the doors if the outside of them were going to be swarming with fucking geeks. That left the fire escape ladder.

RickyJo tightened up the straps of her backpack. She had her bow, lots of extra arrows that she had pilfered from Daryl's closet, a hunting knife and a handgun. The gun was on her belt, and the pockets of her cargo pants were sagging heavy with all the extra bullets she could stuff inside them. Merle was geared up in a similar fashion, pack strapped to his back and several loaded guns on his person. He also had a rifle slung over one shoulder.

The stump of Merle's wrist was bundled in about a million layers of gauze with a plastic bag taped on top. His arm was healing, but it was still pretty raw. RickyJo had fixed him up in an attempt to keep the walkers from being able to smell blood on him. She felt his one arm go around her, pulling her close.

"There's too many of them," she whispered. Merle didn't answer, but she felt him nod his head.

"Saw that chinese kid do a little trick to get past them when I was chained to the roof," he said, his voice low and quiet since they were out on the balcony and there were walkers milling around down below that had not spotted them yet. "Him and that fuckin' cop. They covered theirselves in walker blood and blended right on in. Fuckin' geeks couldn't smell them." RickyJo felt all his muscles go tense at once when Merle mentioned the cop that chained him to the roof. When they got back to camp, things between them were probably going to go real bad real fast.

"We have to get down there and get the walker blood first," RickyJo said. The thought of covering herself in walker guts was not appealing. She hated being dirty. But it sounded better than being eaten alive.

Merle nodded. He stood there rubbing at his chin another minute, then suddenly he was ducking back inside the apartment. RickyJo could hear him fumbling around inside like he was looking for something. When he reappeared on the balcony he had the neighbor's cat in his arms and a horrible evil grin on his face.

"No," RickyJo told him.

"If we leave it here, it's goin' ta starve to death anyway," Merle informed her. At least this way the animal could be of some use to them.

"No way Merle," RickyJo said, shaking her head. She felt sick to her stomach just thinking about what he was going to do.

"Don't look," he warned her. Then before RickyJo could think about trying to grab the cat from him he gave it a good toss, throwing it as far away from the balcony ladder as he could. RickyJo put her hands over her eyes, but not fast enough. She saw the cat flinging through the air, body rolling and flailing before it hit the ground with a sickening thump.

The walkers coverged on the poor animal, not looking in the direction of the balcony even when Merle pulled the latch that held the ladder in place and let the heavy metal device fall and clatter down to hit the pavement. RickyJo still had her hands clamped over her eyes. He grabbed her by the shoulder and gave her a good shake.

"Time to go," he told her.

"I can't fuckin' believe you just did that...," she said. He could tell she had a few other choice things to say to him, but he cut her off.

"Cuss me out later," he said, "right now we got ta go or pussy down there died for no reason." RickyJo shut her open mouth and nodded.

She went down the ladder first, holding her knife in her teeth. She had it back in her hand before her boots hit the ground. Most of the walkers were crowded around what remained of the cat, but there was a nasty looking one shuffling her way. She stabbed it through the head, dropping it to the ground. Then she knelt down, stabbing her knife into it's belly and cutting up lengthwise, splitting it almost in half. All it's stinky rotten parts came gushing out and she turned, putting her mouth into the crook of her elbow to try and keep from puking. Goddamn have they always smelled this bad, she thought. The smell was overpowering, it was so strong it almost made her dizzy enough to faint.

When RickyJo heard the clatter of Merle's boots hitting the ground she looked up at him. Her face was ghostly pale and she looked ready to throw up.

"Jus' plug yer nose," he told her. Then he knelt down and scooped up a giant handful of the awful stuff, slathering it all over her. She plugged her nose and closed her eyes, gripping her knife tight in the other hand and thinking about how she was never ever going to be able to get the smell of the fucking glop out of her hair. Merle slathered her from head to toe with as much blood and guts as he could scoop up. Then he did the same to himself, thinking about when the hell did RickyJo develop such a weak stomach.

Taking her by the arm, he pulled her up onto her feet. They were both slathered up, so now it was time to see if this trick was going to work. RickyJo was trying to breath through her mouth, hoping that like going into the monkey house at the zoo, she would get used to the smell after a few minutes. Either way she shouldered up and got a good grip on her knife just in case this plan didn't work.

There was a walker shuffling towards them, draw by the noises of the small herd. RickyJo had her knife up to kill it, but Merle put a hand on her wrist, lowering her arm.

"See if it can smell us or not first," he hissed. They waited, letting the monster get closer and closer to them. RickyJo could feel her body getting tense. Letting a geek get close enough to bite her went against every instinct in her body. But still she waited. And goddamn if the thing didn't shuffle right by like she and Merle weren't even there. She felt her face light up into a big smile and when she turned to look at Merle, his expression mirrored her own. Now they could just stroll right through the city, without having to waste energy fighting every geek that crossed their path.


	6. Chapter 6

Five Minute Window

Chapter 6

After RickyJo slammed the trunk of her jeep shut, she kicked at the bumper and started yelling out every curse word she knew. Her guns were gone. Along with her whole stash of emergency supplies. And to add insult to injury, someone had siphoned all the gas out of her jeep.

"That fucker," she cursed, pulling her knee up to give the jeep another good stomping. Merle pushed at her shoulder, throwing her off balance so she was forced to put her foot back on the ground.

"Breakin' yer toes ain't gonna help things," he informed her. She threw him a dirty look, tucking a walker blood covered strand of hair behind her ear. "Doesn't mean Daryl took the shit," he added.

"He's the only one that knew where I had that shit hid at," she fumed. All the stuff in her tent was gone, the tent was ripped to pieces. Everyone was long gone. Including Daryl. And the fucker didn't even bother to leave her a note saying where he went. Would that have been so hard to do?

"He musta gave us up fer dead," Merle mentioned. There was a huge pile of burned up walkers. And a lot of fresh graves. The camp must have been overrun. If Daryl had taken their shit and lit off, at least that meant he was still alive.

RickyJo walked around to the driver's side and flipped the visor down. Half a pack of cigarettes came falling out. The one thing that had not been taken from the car. She snatched them up and shook one out of the pack, holding it in her teeth while she pushed the car's lighter in to heat up. But the lighter wasn't working. She popped the trunk and lifted it up, only to slam it shut again a few seconds later.

"They took the fucking battery!," she cursed. Fucking gang raped her car is what those fuckers did. This was her car. Hers. Now it was nothing but a rolling shit heap on wheels.

Merle reached into his pocket and pulled out a lighter, offering it to her. She took it and lit the smoke, handing it to him and then lighting another one for herself. She stepped up on the trunk and sat on the back of her jeep while leaned on his elbows next to her. They both smoked in silence, trying to figure out what to do. Getting back to camp and finding Daryl had been the mission. There was no back up plan.

Reaching over, Merle squeezed her knee, the cigarette still between his fingers. RickyJo sighed and gave him a half hearted smile. She had on cargo pants and a black tank top, her arms, hair and most of her face were streaked with walker gore. There was a light sheen of sweat near her hairline and a little more collecting in the cleft between her breasts. Merle handed her the half full bottle of water he was sipping on. She took it gratefully, tipping it back and swallowing the rest of it down in a fell gulps.

"What are we gonna do now?," she asked him. Merle pulled his hand off RickyJo's knee and took another long drag off his smoke. He felt pressured. Not only to take care of himself, which he knew he could do. But to take care of her. RickyJo. Make sure she was alright. Find somewhere safe for them both. It was a strange new feeling, having someone else to worry about. Strange and new but not disagreeable. He liked having her around.

"Dunno," he admitted, "we'll think of somethin' honey."

"Honey?," she asked, the corners of her lips curving up into a smile. "Honey? Really?" Merle raised one eyebrow before he leaned in closer to her. He took one more drag on his smoke and flicked it away.

"What would ya like instead?," he asked, his voice getting lower as he leaned in closer to her. Then fast as a cat he pounced on her, grabbing her thigh and squeezing it hard in the spot he knew tickled her the most. "Darlin', sweetheart, light of my life?" She squealed, shoving him away and almost burning herself with the bit of cigarette she had left.

RickyJo opened her mouth to tell him the choice nicknames she had picked out just for him. But her words turned into a loud warning when she saw Merle was stumbling backwards right into a nasty looking geek. The tire iron was on the ground in front of her, along with the rest of the junk she had hurled out of the trunk in her anger at finding her supplies gone. She jumped down, landing harder than she meant to. She felt pain radiating through the arch of her left foot, but she ignored it.

Merle was trying to hold the thing's face away from him with his one good hand, but it had ahold of him by the hair and shirt. RickyJo grabbed the iron and darted around the back of the rotting monster, slamming the iron into the base of it's skull. The thing dropped like a rock, bits of Merle's short hair stuck in between it's fingers. Just to be safe, RickyJo plunged the iron into it's face and yanked it back out. _That's what you get for grabbing my man. Fucker._

"So much for the camouflage," she said. The blood worked to get them out of the city, but now that most of it had dried and crusted off, it didn't seem to be doing them much good. Or maybe the thing would have gone for them anyway, because they were making noise.

She was shaking the blood off the iron when Merle seized her by her arm, dragging her close to him. She heard him swear under his breath. When she looked up she saw them. Walkers. They were suddenly everywhere at once. All around them and closing in fast.

"Get on top of the jeep," Merle said, shoving her in that direction. She climbed up the trunk, turning to haul him up behind her. Then she grabbed her bow. Pulling arrow after arrow out of the sleeve on the side of her pack, she buried each one deep into the brain of a geek. Merle shot at the ones that got closer with his handgun until it started making a hollow clicking noise. He dropped it and flipped the rifle off his shoulder, using that instead. But for each one they shot, it seemed like three more geeks came out of the woods to take the place of the one that dropped.

RickyJo reached behind her head, grabbing for another arrow and coming up empty handed. She slung her bow over her shoulder and pulled the gun from the holster at her waist. It was fully loaded, but she knew it wasn't going to be enough. There were too many geeks and only two of them. She shot as many as she could before she had to reach into her pockets and reload her gun. A walker got close enough to grab her leg and Merle pounded it's head in with the butt of his rifle. That was when the shooting started.

From their vantage point on top of the car, RickyJo could see them. A tall man in the middle leading a small group of people that all had automatic weapons. They gunned down the herd like fish in a barrel. RickyJo was grateful for their help. After all, she didn't want to die today. But now that the herd of dead were dead on the ground, she was suspicious of their intentions. They group was all men, and that made her nervous.

Merle hopped down from the trunk and reached up to offer RickyJo a hand. When she stepped down he noticed she was limping a little. They were not going to be able to run. She went for his hand, but he was still holding his gun. So she grabbed the belt on his pants, holding it so tight her knuckles turned white.

"It's alright," Merle said quietly to her, "If they wanted us dead they woulda let the herd get us." RickyJo nodded, but stayed slightly behind him, holding her gun in the hand she wasn't using to cling to him like a baby monkey.

The tall man smiled at them and put his gun away. He motioned for his men to do the same. He put his hands up so the couple could see he meant them no harm. Then he started walking towards them, stepping carefully over the dead walkers. One wasn't quite as dead as he thought and it reached up, grabbing his leg. RickyJo shot it in the head with the last bullet in her gun. The man shook the walker off and smiled at her again.

"Thanks," he told her. She nodded, but didn't say anything. He stepped closer and held out his hand to Merle. Since he only had one good hand and it was busy holding a gun, RickyJo let go of Merle's belt, shuffling forward and sticking her hand out to the man.

"RickyJo," she said. She nodded towards the man beside her. "Thissis Merle." The tall man smiled at her. She had a little country twang going on. Not enough to sound uneducated. Just enough to let him know she was local and probably knew the area. He took her hand, only getting a chance to clasp it for a moment before she was snatching it back. For someone that could head shot twenty walkers in a row, she was rather shy up close. And pretty.

"RickyJo, Merle," the man repeated, nodding his head at each of them in turn, "I'm Phillip Blake."


	7. Chapter 7

Five Minute Window

Chapter 7

The table she was sitting on was too high up from the floor for her feet to touch down. So her legs were dangling, one foot swinging back and forth as she tried to relieve some of the nervous tension she was feeling. A medical exam. That was the price of entry at this town. RickyJo kept reminding herself that it wasn't that bad. It was actually a smart idea. To make sure the people they brought in weren't hiding a bite. Or something worse. But the suspicion that this was some kind of trick had also crossed her mind.

Since RickyJo was covered in walker guts, she was taken to a small room where she could shower first and given a set of clean clothes. Merle went with her there. He held her against him under the warm stream of water, telling her everything was going to be fine. But once they got to the medical center, he was shown into a separate room. RickyJo knew he was just on the other side of the wall from her. And while she couldn't make out all the words he was saying, she could hear the low tiber of his voice. Not being able to see him still her feel uneasy. This place. It seemed too good to be true.

When the doctor came in, she breathed a small sigh of relief. The doctor was a woman. And once she introduced herself, RickyJo found out the doctor was acually a nurse. The woman took her temperature, a small sample of her blood, and told her she had done a good job patching up Merle's wrist. He was going to heal up fine. That made RickyJo very happy. She even smiled at the woman, holding her wrist up by her shoulder to stop the bleeding from where the blood had been taken. The nurse handed her a bandaid with a cartoon character on it and left the room.

The man that had introduced himself as Phillip Blake came into the room as the nurse was leaving and RickyJo felt herself tense up, sliding back away from the edge of the table. Thankfully, Merle came in right behind him. She was not going to have to be alone with this man she didn't know. And she was glad. Something about him just rubbed her the wrong way. The way he talked. He didn't say what he was really thinking. Hopping off the table, she wrapped her arms around Merle's waist like it had been a year since she had seen him instead of only a few minutes.

"I would like to ask the two of you some questions," Phillip told them. He looked at Merle when he spoke since the woman had her face buried in his chest. Merle nodded.

Phillip took the couple back to his apartment to talk to them. There was a man with glasses on that looked vaguely familiar to RickyJo. He was sitting at a table playing a game with a little girl that looked about ten or eleven. The girl jumped up, rushing at Phillip. He swung her up into his arms and hugged her.

"I missed you Daddy," she told him. Setting the girl down, he stroked her hair and then sent her back to the table, telling her he would play a game with her later. The man with the glasses stood up. He had his mouth hanging wide open, staring at RickyJo.

"I know you," he finally spit out, pointing at her. Phillip turned towards the man with a look of surprise on his face. This woman did not look like the sort of person that Milton would associate with. She was covered in tattoos and looked a little rough around the edges. Phillip took personal pleasure in guessing what people's occupations had been before the turn. He was usually close and often spot on. When it came to RickyJo he had stripper or hairstylist in mind. He was hoping for stripper.

Milton stepped forward towards the woman, but the man with her stepped into his path, giving him a threatening look. Stammering a little, Milton stepped back. He pushed his glasses back up on his nose and straightened up his shirt.

"I saw you give a speech," he said, looking at RickyJo, "at that biology conference in Mexico. I uhh... I recognized your tattoos." He had recognized her face too. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. And she was a biologist. All night long Milton waited to try and get a moment to talk with her, but the man she was with whisked her out of the place before the party was even half over. "You're Ericka King."

"My friends call me RickyJo," she told him, giving him a smile to go with her name. RickyJo. He thought about her name, letting it bounce around inside his mind, getting used to the sound of it. Then he repeated it.

"RickyJo, I'm Milton Mamet." The woman gave him a little nod of recognition, but she didn't say anything else.

They sat at the table, snacking on a bowl of dried fruit and drinking iced tea. The little girl was still playing at her small card table on the other side of the room. Having her close put RickyJo at ease. She figured this Phillip guy wasn't planning to do anything too sinister to her with his young daughter in the room. The girl glanced over at them, her wide eyes lingering on RickyJo's tattoos. RickyJo smiled at the girl and lifted her hand, giving her a little wave. The girl waved back and returned to her game.

"Why don't you start by telling me what you did before the turn," Phillip suggested. The woman started to open her mouth to speak but Milton interjected.

"She was a biologist," he informed everyone. Phillip gave him a look that he knew meant he better shut his trap. Then he motioned for the woman to speak. She smiled at Milton again. He was just like so many of the men she had met through work over the years. They could figure out how to split an atom, but had no clue how to unsnap a bra. She was used to men like him hitting on her, trying to take her out for coffee or drinks. When she was new, sometimes she would accept, thinking that the man in question really did want to talk to her about work or get her opinion on a research project the were working on. But all they ever wanted was to try and sleep with her.

"He's right," she said, "I was a biologist. I taught grad classes and did research for the university." She glanced sideways at Merle, knowing he was going to have to answer the same question and worried about what he was going to say. His mouth had a tendency to run away from him. "He's a mechanic," she decided to add, nodding her head to indicate she was talking about Merle. He did work at that car repair shop she owned sometimes. So it wasn't a total lie. No one needed to know about how he really made his money. Selling drugs.

"Where did the two of you learn to shoot?," Phillip asked. He had been impressed with what he saw up at the quarry. Most people he picked up had guns with them or on them, but very few of them could actually hit what they were aiming for. Especially under pressure. And the woman had been good with that bow she was using too.

"Military," Merle said, finally speaking up. RickyJo told them her grandfather taught her. He had been taking her hunting with him since she was knee high to a pig's eye. They talked on for a while after that, Phillip asking questions and them answering. They had nothing to hide. The story about Merle's hand was pretty bad. While Merle spoke about it, RickyJo held his one remaining hand in between the two of hers under the table. Once Phillip was done, RickyJo had a few questions for him that she decided she felt comfortable enough to ask.

"How did y'all end up at that camp up at the quarry?"

"Some people stopped here for a few days. They told us some people camping up there. Told us they were friendly," Phillip lowered his eyes towards Merle's cut off hand when he said the last part. "We thought we would check it out, see if any of them wanted to join up." RickyJo grabbed for her bag, digging into the front pocket. She pulled out the picture of her and Daryl at the zoo.

"Did you see him?," she asked, holding the picture out for Phillip to look at. He shook his head and handed it back to her. She looked so hopeful, he hated to tell her no.

"I'm sorry," he said, noting the sad expression on her face, "the people we met were a family, all hispanic."

"Oh," she said, the disappointment clear in her voice.

"Who is he?," Phillip asked.

"Ma baby brother," Merle told the man. Once again Phillip was surprised by these people. The way the woman was acting, he was sure the man in the photo was connected to her. Unless maybe they were all related. But he had been sure these two were a couple. They had sure been acting like they were romantically involved. Showering together and touching each other under the table. The confusion must have been showing on his face, because RickyJo spoke up.

"We've all been friends a real long time," she explained. Phillip nodded, grateful for the simple explanation.

"Well," Phillip said with an air of finality, "You two are welcome to stay as long as you like. Since you are both good shots, you can take shifts on the wall." He paused a moment to gauge their reactions. Both of them seemed to like that idea, which meant they weren't thinking about trying to leave. "We have plenty of vehicles that need maintence," he told Merle. Merle nodded. That was an easy job assignment. RickyJo was a little harder to figure out. She could help Milton out in the lab. That would make him happy. But her talents might be best served elsewhere. She might be of use in the medical center. Or even over at the school that one of the women was trying to get going. She had more education than most people here.

"When we drove in, I saw yer putting in gardens," RickyJo mentioned, biting at her lower lip after she spoke. She had already noticed this man did not like to be interrupted when he was talking.

"You would like to help with that?," he asked. She nodded her head vigorously. She loved to grow things. Plants were so much easier to deal with than people. All you had to give them was water and sun and love and they were happy. Just thinking about it made her feel happy and relaxed.

"Sounds good to me," Phillip told her, "take the rest of the day to get settled in and I will have someone show you both around tomorrow."

Their weapons were returned to them and they were taken to an apartment. It was small, just a sitting room and a bedroom. There was a community bathroom down the hall and a kitchen that everyone shared downstairs. Someone had put a pile of fresh sheets and towels on the bed. And there was a small tray of food on the table.

"Not so bad," Merle said, tossing his bag in one of the chairs. He had seen a lot worse places. RickyJo did the same with her two bags. One she had taken from the apartment and the other was half full with the few things that had not been stolen from her jeep. She had one hand up, chewing at the skin on the side of her thumb. "Whatcha thinkin'?," he asked her.

"I think blocking off the streets with tires was a smart idea," RickyJo said. She was hopeful but not yet ready to accept this place for what it seemed to be. Something about that Phillip guy just rubbed her the wrong way. He acted like a gentleman but stared at her body when he thought she wasn't looking. She was tired and her emotions felt as worn as the shabby rug that covered the floor in this apartment.

Perching on the edge of the table, she started unbraiding her damp hair so it would dry without a lot of weird kinks and waves in it. Some woman took her clothes away to wash them and gave her a tank top and a pair of men's cotton drawstring pants to wear. The tank rode up as she lifted her arms to shake her hair out, revealing a little slice of bare midrift.

Looking at that little strip of bare skin, Merle thought about how much he wanted to touch her. Then he remembered he could touch her. Anytime he wanted. They were a couple now. Today had made it real for him. People here treated them like they were _together._ Boyfriend and girlfriend or whatever the fuck people called it. He liked thinking about it. Her full round breasts that always looked a little too big for her frame, her long tan legs and the hot wet spot between them, the defined muscles in her arms and her long thick silky hair. Even the scars that covered her neck and shoulders, people never noticed them because they were staring at her tattoos. All of that belonged to him now.

Reaching over, Merle brushed his thumb across the bare sliver of skin he had been staring at. Then he caught RickyJo by the waist, sliding her across the table and into his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulders, letting him touch and fondle all of the softest parts of her. She didn't tense up anymore when he touched her. That stopped after they started having sex everyday.

"We do have a new bed in the other room," RickyJo whispered to him. She nibbled at his ear then blew on it, making him shudder. "It's bad luck to sleep in it without breakin' it in first," she added. That was all he needed to hear. Merle jumped to his feet in a hurry. It was a good thing RickyJo had fast reflexes or she would have been dumped right off his lap onto the floor. _And some people say romance is dead._ She was laughing about it as he pulled her into the bedroom, telling her if she wanted to see some romance she should take off her pants.


	8. Chapter 8

Five Minute Window

Chapter 8

One month later

Merle had spent part of the morning hunting. Or rather trying to teach a few idiots that had no idea what in the fuck they were doing how to hunt. He hated teaching people. But since his daughter had been bitten, Phillip had been adamant about everyone learning how to shoot and hunt and fight the biters.

The group Merle had taken out today was full of even bigger pussies than usual. They had a run in with a pair of wild dogs and one of these so-called men had actually pissed in his pants. Pissed right in his pants. And not a few drops. His whole leg was soaking wet. That was the end of the hunting lesson for the day. Merle couldn't fucking wait to get back and tell RickyJo about that shit.

This time of day, RickyJo was usually working on the gardens. So he wasn't expecting to find her in the apartment when he stomped in and kicked his boots off. Something on the table caught his eye. An empty foil medication packet. Merle walked over and picked the box up. Misoprostol. The name of the drug sounded familiar, but since it wasn't something that could get you high he wasn't sure what it was for. Next to it were some pills he did recognize. Little blue pills with a hole in the center. Valiums. And there were some big ibuprofen 800s lying next to them, all spilled out of the little white box the foil packet pills had been in.

"RickyJo," he called out, "you home?" There was no response so he headed into the bedroom to look for her. He found her, huddled up on the bed under a blanket in the fetal position. Now he was starting to get worried. Her face was pale and she looked sick as hell. There was a bucket next to the bed like she thought she might start puking. Merle knelt down and put the back of his hand on her forehead. She had her eyes squeezed shut but he could tell she wasn't asleep.

"You sick? Whatsamatter with ya?," he asked.

"You were supposta be gone all day," she said, her voice came out shaky like she was in a lot of pain. He was supposed to be gone all day, what the hell kind of thing was that to say. She didn't want him to see her sick or what? He had seen her sicker than this before. Her and Daryl both got food poisoning from eating at that nasty chinese place down the road from her Atlanta apartment. She had looked a lot worse during that barf a thon than she did now.

"You sick?," he asked her again. She let a little moan slip out and clutched her stomach like it was hurting her. "That's it," he informed her, standing up and reaching down like he meant to pick her up, "yer goin' to the infirmary."

"I was already there," she said, swatting his hands away. RickyJo pulled the blanket up, wiping at the tears that were threatening to spill down her cheeks. She wished he would just go away and stop asking her questions. Merle was supposed to be gone all day. Hunting. She never intended for him to find out about this. Turning her back to him, she pulled the blanket up under her chin and hoped he would just get frustrated with her and leave.

He got frustrated. But he didn't leave. Instead he prowled around to the other side of the bed so he could see her face. "What-in-the-hell is goin' on?" He was about ready to grab the woman, sick or not sick, and shake the truth out of her. RickyJo was as stubborn as a mule sometimes and twice as crazy. If she was having some sort of embarassing medical problem, she better just come out and say so.

"I'm pregnant! Okay." She hollered the words at him like they were curses. "I took that stuff to get rid of it. I can't watch my baby getting ripped apart by walkers." She flopped back down onto her pillow and rolled away so she didn't have to look at him. After she said the truth, she thought the tears would come again, but she just felt empty. She heard Merle's heavy steps retreating out into the other room and a few seconds later she heard the door slam shut behind him.

RickyJo wasn't even sure if Merle was going to come back at all after what she said to him. She didn't ever want him to find out, thinking this was a burden she could bear alone. And she certainly didn't want him to find out like that. That had just been terrible. She lay there, the cramps washing over her in nauseating waves, and thought about how she wished she could die too. The nurse had given her pain medication. But she left it on the table. She deserved to feel this way. All she ever wanted was a baby and now she was too afraid to have one. She drifted in and out of sleep for what felt like a long time. The sound of the door opening and slamming back shut again woke her up.

Shifting the small bundle he was carrying around in his arms, Merle looked over the pills that were still strewn out on the table. It had been hours since he stormed out but the same amount of pills were still lying there. He knew right away what was going on. It was pretty typical for RickyJo. She was feeling guilty and decided to punish herself. And for what. Wanting to live? Having a baby right now would basically amount to suicide, even if they were living in Woodbury. He had been a little shocked when she yelled it all at him without warning, but after he had some time to think, he was relieved she got rid of it. _Would make some kid a shitty father anyway._

"Got something for ya," Merle called out. RickyJo popped her head up before she could stop herself. She was sure he had only come back to get his things. She figured her hated her. But the tone of his voice didn't sound angry, more like he was excited about something. Merle came into the bedroom with what looked like a balled up shirt in his arms. She wrinkled up her nose at him, not in the mood for a joke. If he had dirty laundry in his arms for her to do she was going to kick him so hard in the balls he would never have to worry about knocking her up again. That joke wasn't even funny the first time. And definitely it wasn't fucking funny right now.

"Do your own fuckin' laundry Merle," she told him. That made him laugh and he approached her side of the bed with a big smile on his face. He was holding the bundle close to his chest with his bad arm, which was covered in the metal sleeve he wore now. With his good hand he reached inside the old shirt and pulled out the tiniest cutest littlest puppy she had ever seen. He held it up by the scruff for her inspection. It was a mutt for sure, but looked like it might be part german shepherd mixed with something fluffier. RickyJo snaked her arm out from under her blanket, reaching for the puppy.

"Ah Ah Ah," he said, clicking his tounge at her and holding the small dog back out of her reach, "you take the pain pills ya got first. Then you kin have 'im." RickyJo sighed and held her empty hand out. She had been close to caving in on that anyway. All she wanted to do was sleep. Merle disappeared from view and returned to drop to pills into her hand. One small blue one and a large white ibuprofen. She tossed them down her throat with a drink of water from the glass next to the bed. Then she lay back and held her hands out for the puppy.

Merle grabbed the little guy by the scruff and lowered him down into RickyJo's hands. Away from the warm body who's smell he had already gotten used to, the little puppy whimpered and whined. RickyJo held him close, pulling the blankets up around him. And Merle would be goddamned if that dog didn't climb up to nestle right down under her chin, sitting directly in her cleavage. Smart little fucker.

Merle tried not to laugh. But the way RickyJo was cooing and fussing over the little ball of puppy fluff was downright ridiculous. When she finally tore her eyes away from the small dog long enough to look up at him, she had a big smile on her face.


	9. Chapter 9

Five Minute Window

Chapter 9

6 Months Later

Andrea ate the eggs that the man made for her. Michonne was just sitting there, staring at everyone like they were raping her dead instead of trying to feed her breakfast. The door to the apartment swung open and a large fluffy dog charged in. He gave everyone a sniff, then sat down in front of Milton. The dog picked his front legs up and gave a little yip. Treat Please.

"Chips, get away from there and stop yer beggin'." The voice came from the doorway. Andrea had to blink a few times before she could believe her eyes. She had spoken to Merle the night before, and he had not said one word about RickyJo. So Andrea didn't ask about her. She assumed the woman was dead. But here she was, complete with her short shorts and cowboy boots. RickyJo had a plate in her hands, wrapped up in a towel. Seeing it was about to get dropped, the governor got up and took it from her.

Andrea didn't even realize she was on her feet until she heard her chair scraping against the floor as she pushed it back from the table. Then she was wrapped up in RickyJo's lanky arms, being hugged so tight that she was lifted up onto her tiptoes.

"I'm sorry I didn't come to see you last night," RickyJo told her, "I pulled a double watch shift and I was dead to the world. Merle told me this mornin'." Not willing to be left out of all the affection, the dog sat down next to them and gave another yip. "Oh," RickyJo said, letting go of Andrea and turning towards the dog, "this is Chips." Andrea smiled and leaned down to pet the friendly animal. She was rewarded by having her hand covered in slober from dog kisses. RickyJo cocked her hand up on her hip and sent the dog over to the corner to lay down. There was an old blanket folded up there that the dog settled down on, so Andrea guessed he was a frequent visitor to this apartment. He watched them from his assigned place, wagging his tail with excitement.

"You stayin' for breakfast?," the governor asked, obviously speaking to RickyJo. He was already out of his seat, dragging another chair over to the table, so Andrea guessed the question must be more of a formality. RickyJo answered him anyway.

"Hell yes I am," she announced, making both the men laugh. Then she pulled the towel off the plate she brought. "I made biscuits." When he pulled the chair up for her, Andrea noticed the governor put his hand on RickyJo's back. She didn't jerk away from the contact, but she didn't look like she was too comfortable with it either. The smile she gave him looked forced.

RickyJo handed out biscuits for everyone. She made them with rendered chicken fat, like her Nanna taught her. Then she passed around the jam. And then she was out of her seat again, getting tabasco sauce out of the cupboard to drown her scrambled eggs in. She had not had to ask where the sauce was, so like the dog, Andrea guessed she must spend a lot of time here.

"So tell me everything," RickyJo said to Andrea in between mouthfuls of food. When she saw Andrea was about to object, she added, "I know you told Merle some, but I would like to hear your version. You know, without all the swearing and derogatory comments." That made Andrea smile. It put her more at ease.

"I don't know where to start," Andrea admitted.

"Just start with the last time I saw you at camp and end with right now," RickyJo encouraged her, "The PG version will do for now, you can come over for some wine later and tell me the rest." She wiggled her eyebrows and made a rather obscene gesture when she said the last part. The governor turned and coughed into his hand, while Milton spit his tea back into his tea cup. Andrea couldn't stop a laugh from bubbling out of her, thinking that the woman had clearly been spending far too much of her time with Merle. Then again she had always been unedited, even back at the Atlanta camp.

"Well...," Andrea started out, thinking back to things that she had been trying hard to forget. She started with the night Amy died. Then told them about what happened at the CDC. Losing Sophia. Finding the farm. RickyJo listened quietly, only interrupting once in a while to ask a question about Daryl. Just when she was telling them about the farm being overrun, the other woman with her butted in. The woman had not said one word since RickyJo came in, not even to introduce herself. But suddenly she was speaking up very loudly.

"I WANT MY WEAPONS BACK!," Michonne announced. RickyJo followed the woman's gaze. She was staring at a ninja sword that was setting on a shelf a few feet away from the table. Merle had been calling Andrea's friend the mute ninja. So RickyJo guessed the weapon she was complaining loudly about was the sword. RickyJo got up and strode over to the shelf, grabbing the sword. Milton sucked in his breath. No one touched things that the governor had on the display shelf in his apartment. No one. RickyJo walked back to the table and tossed the sword at Michonne, who managed to catch it in her hands despite the fact that it had been hurled at her face rather forcefully without warning.

RickyJo sat back down, motioning for Andrea to continue. Of course Phillip was staring daggers at her. So she put her most innocent face on and turned to look back at him. The innocent face didn't seem to be working, because he was giving her the you are in a fuckton of trouble face. And that was not a look anyone wanted to see.

"You don't understand what it's like to be a woman," she finally said, breaking the awkward silence between them. "Surrounded by a ton of strange men, all of them armed. She's afraid. And it's just a sword, not a machine gun."

"She hurts anyone here with just a sword, its on you RickyJo," he informed the woman. She gave Michonne a pointed glance and then turned back to him.

"Fair enough," RickyJo spit back.

Andrea finished the rest of her story despite the slightly awkward tension in the air. She was worried for RickyJo and didn't want her getting into some kind of trouble because of Michonne's outburst. Once she was done, RickyJo reminded her of her offer for drinks later. Then the governor asked Milton to take Andrea and Michonne out and set them up with someone that could give them a better tour than the very limited one they recieved after curfew the night before.

RickyJo was hoping she could slip out the door while they were leaving, but Phillip caught her by the arm. That black woman was looking back at them so he let go of her quickly and used his most polite voice.

"I'd like a word with you," he told her. RickyJo swallowed hard and shut the door to the apartment, leaving her alone inside with him. She was in trouble. More than she thought she would be. The governor wasn't stupid. Phillip stood there staring at her in silence until he was sure that the other two women were down the hall out of earshot. Then he grabbed her hard by the arm, shoving her up against the closed door. Chips was up off the blanket, ready to attack. With her free hand she signalled the dog to lay back down, which thankfully he did. Phillip would shoot her dog without thinking twice about it if Chips even breathed too close to him.

"What the hell was that?," he asked her. The creepiest thing about him was how calm and monotone his voice stayed. Even when he was seething with anger. "You undermined my authority in front of those women." His body was so close to hers she could feel the buckle of his belt. His breath smelled like eggs and Milton's herbal tea. RickyJo knew she needed to think quick.

"You want to know the truth from them, or not?," she asked. He narrowed his eyes at her. "If you want them to tell me where their group is, I have to earn their trust." It was a lie. RickyJo believed Andrea's story about being alone with Michonne all winter. But she knew Phillip didn't. He thought there was no way two women could make it alone that long.

"I would appreciate a warning next time," he told her. RickyJo nodded. He released his grip on her arm. There would be a bruise there tomorrow that she would have to hide from Merle. Phillip let go of her arm but he didn't move away from her. Instead he pressed a little closer, bring his hand up under her chin to keep her from looking down.

"My offer still stands," he told her. She had heard the rest a thousand times before. People had accidents out on runs all the time. Merle went on a lot of runs. All she had to do was say the word and Phillip would have him _taken care of._ Then she would be free to take up her rightful position in this town. In his bed and on his arm.

Having him in her personal space was revolting. But she needed to stay calm. What RickyJo wanted to do was grab her knife and stab his eyes out before she cut off his dick and shoved it down his throat. But that would get her and Merle killed. Plus he was a big motherfucker wiht a long ass reach. She wasn't sure she could take him in a physical fight. And if she tried attacking him and got overpowered, he would rape her for sure.

"I've told you before, I won't do that ta him," she said, keeping her tone as even as she could. She knew that lame excuse was only going to work for so long. Phillip was brushing his thumb back and forth across her cheek, his other hand resting on her waist. Waiting. If he didn't get his hands off her soon, she felt like she might go insane. So she decided to say what she really thought about his advances and let the chips fall where they would. This situation couldn't get much worse. He had her pinned between his body and the door, his erection grinding into her stomach. RickyJo stopped trying to avoid his gaze and stared up at him instead, no longer trying to mask all the hate she felt towards him. It showed plainly in her narrowed eyes.

"I'm getting fuckin' sick of this game, Phillip. You're in charge here and we both know you can force me anytime you want and no one will be able to do anything about it. So why don't you just get it the fuck over with."

There it was. A little look of shock on his face. It was only there for a fraction of a second but she saw it. He didn't like being called a rapist.

"I don't want to force you," he told her, the hand on her waist moving up. Getting dangerously close to the underside of her breast. "I want you to give yourself to me."

"Well today is not that day," she said, "so either do what you're goin' ta do or let me go." RickyJo tried to sound braver than she was. But she knew her voice was shaking as hard as her hands. He stayed in her space a few more seconds. Seconds that felt like hours. Then he backed away, giving her a little bow like he was a real gentleman. He even opened the door for her.

RickyJo snapped her fingers, signalling Chips to follow her. The dog would have followed her anyway, since he wasn't any more eager to be alone with the governor than she was. RickyJo bit her lip and forced herself to walk. Don't run. Walk slow. Casual like nothing is wrong. She got out of the building and headed straight for her apartment. Someone near on the other side of the street was calling her name but she didn't stop. Once she was in her building, she headed for her apartment, praying that Merle was already gone. If he was there, he would know something was wrong. And she wasn't sure she could pull herself together enough to lie to him right now.


	10. Chapter 10

Five Minute Window

Chapter 10

She had set of clothes she wore for special _missions_ like the one they were going on today. Ones she never washed. So did Toby. If you were freshly showered and in clean clothes, it was harder to get people out on the road to trust you.

This was not a scouting mission. Merle had already taken some men out and made sure the squad of soldiers was where that helicopter pilot said they would be. And he made sure they had enough guns and other supplies to make what the mission they were going on now worth the risk. Just the armored truck itself was worth it. And once RickyJo heard they had one, she was fully committed. The Governor wanted the truck for his personal uses, of course, but she had other plans for it. Getting her and Merle the hell away from this fucking place being her ultimate goal.

Martinez was driving, and RickyJo climbed into the backseat next to Merle, calling her dog in behind her. She let Toby ride shotgun. He was young enough that riding in the front seat was a great excitement for him. Martinez reminded the boy to put on his seat belt, making RickyJo smile at the back of their heads. Ceaser never talked about his life before the turn, but from the way he treated the kids in town, she guessed he had been a father himself at one time or another.

As she slid across the seat, she felt Merle's arm go around her shoulders. Chips licked at his hand and he gave the dog an affectionate scratch on the head. Good boy. RickyJo still felt a little shaken up by her uncomfortable encounter with the governor a few hours before. But she was hoping it didn't show. It was going to be game on in a few minutes and she needed to concentrate on the task at hand.

They parked the cars about a mile out. That way the squad of men wouldn't hear them coming. Toby and RickyJo waited by the truck while Phillip, Merle and all the other men fanned out into the woods. To go with their dirty clothes, they got some dirt from the side of the road and rubbed it on their arms and boots. Toby got a little more in his hands and RickyJo knelt down so her could smear a few streaks of dirt across her face. Then she did the same for him, rubbing his wooly lopsided afro poof of hair affectionately when she was done.

"You need a haircut," she told the boy.

"No way," he announced emphatically, patting the sides of his head, "I keep it like this for the ladies." RickyJo laughed and gave him a playful punch in the arm. There were a lot of orphan children in Woodbury. Most had been assigned surrogate parents to look after them. After Toby completely terrorized three different families, the governor gave up and told RickyJo to keep an eye on the boy. Since Merle was one of the more intimidating men in town, the hope was that he would be able to make the boy behave. That had worked for about all of five seconds. As long as it took Toby to figure out he could run a lot faster than Merle.

"How long has it been?," RickyJo asked. Toby held up his wrist and looked at the gaudy gold watch he was wearing. RickyJo was pretty sure it was a rolex. And god only knew where the boy had gotten it. At the present moment, she was only worried whether or not it could keep time.

"We still got ten more minutes," he told her. RickyJo nodded and they passed a bottle of water back and forth between them. Toby insisted on pouring a little in a cup for Chips to drink, even though RickyJo had given the dog a drink before they left. Watching Toby with her dog always made her smile. For a kid that would bite and kick grown men at the smallest provocation, he was never anything but gentle and sweet with Chips.

"Time to go," RickyJo said. Toby nodded and stood up. She took his gun, checking to make sure it was loaded and the safetly was off. Then she handed it back and he stuck it into the back of his pants. She had hers in a holster on her hip, but she was also carrying her bow. They had given the rest of their group about a half hour to spread out and take up position around the group of men they were approaching. Now it was time for RickyJo and Toby to do their part.

Bait. That's what they were. This tactic started out much more innocent. It started out as a test. If they spotted a group, RickyJo and Toby would go in alone and see what happened. If the people in question didn't try to attack or molest them in any way, they were considered safe enough to bring back to town. If they tried something, Merle and the other men would take them out. Then take their stuff. Somewhere along the line the governor had just started killing people and taking their stuff no matter if they were assholes or not.

RickyJo could hear voices so she knew they were almost there. She motioned for Toby to stay close to her. While he never bother to listen to anyone back in town, when they were on a run, Toby did not play games. Out here she could trust him to do as she said. Since just walking into the armed camp would seem weird. RickyJo hid partly behind a tree and then snapped her fingers at Chips, signalling the dog to bark.

The dog's loud yip got the soldiers' attention right away. They yelled back and forth between each other. Is that a dog? Who's over there? Finally one of them hollered for the others to stay back. He climbed down from his truck and walked slowly towards RickyJo. She saw him coming and stepped out from behind the tree. The man was well built and looked to be about her age or maybe a little older. Like the rest of the men, he was dressed in army fatigues.

"We heard some gunshots," she said, "We thought there might be people here." The man looked her up and down, his eyes lingering on her breasts. Then he gave her a friendly smile. "Are you soldiers?," she asked, trying her best to sound very impressed.

"US Army Special Forces at your service m'am," the man told her. Chips gave another little yip and the man knelt down and gave the dog a scratch. Oh fuck. He seemed nice. RickyJo hated when people were nice. It made killing them and taking their stuff feel just that much worse. She tried to think about how much she wanted that truck.

The soldier led RickyJo, Toby and the dog into his camp. Some of the men were staring at her, but none of them looked ready to try anything funny. She took the opportunity to take a look around, especially at the trucks they had. Merle had been right about this being worth the effort. These guys looked like they had cleared out an entire arsenol. RickyJo could see lots and lots of guns and ammo, but no food. No wonder they were desperate enough to send their comrade up in that rickety helicopter.

Toby positioned himself to his back was to one of the large tires on the biggest truck. His eyes darted around and RickyJo knew he was checking for the same thing she was checking for. Which of these men would Merle and the others not have clear shots in from where they were hiding in the woods. Only the one that had invited them into the camp and one more. The shirtless man that had climbed down to introduce himself to RickyJo. Her eyes flicked to Toby and she saw him give her a little nod. She nodded back. Then she moved closer to the man without a shirt on. Her hand was on her hip, moving towards her gun but the man was too busy looking down her shirt to notice. She wondered if he noticed her wedding ring, dangling between her breasts on a long gold chain.

Toby had one hand behind his back. He gripped his gun firmly in his hand. Then he gave the signal. The signal wasn't a whistle or a funny noise. It was just a simple innocuous phrase.

"Have you seen my Uncle?," Toby asked the man. Before the man could answer, he was dead on the ground with a bullet from Toby's gun buried deep inside his brain. RickyJo whipped her gun up under the shirtless man's chin and pulled the trigger. He fell backwards, hitting the ground with an expression of complete shock on his face. RickyJo and Toby both got down on the ground immediately. Gunshots rang out all around them and RickyJo saw Toby had his hands over his ears. One of the men fell backwards off the truck and almost landed smack on him. Chips ran over and started barking at the man's dead body. Nobody messes with my humans.

The whole incident took no more than two minutes. Not a single one of the soldiers had even had a chance to fire back. RickyJo tried not to look at their dead bodies. Especially the man she shot. She didn't want to think about how long these men had managed to make it only to be killed because the governor wanted what they had. She felt Merle's hand on her shoulder and she realized she was still kneeling on the ground with her eyes unfocused. He helped her to her feet.

"That cocksucker didn't touch ya did he?," he asked her, gesturing to the dead man on the ground. Without waiting for a response, Merle started kicking the man's dead body and cursing up a storm. Chips joined in, grabbing the man by the pantleg and giving his leg a healthy shake. Then the dog ran around by the dead man's head and lifted his leg to piss on him. Merle jumped back to keep himself from being covered in dog piss. He was laughing and cursing the dog at the same time. Then he walked over to Toby and gave the kid a pat on the back. Little fucker was twice as tough as most of the grown men in this group.

"Good work there," he told the boy, "goin' ta get ya a beer when we get back."

"You are not," RickyJo interjected. She used to let her nieces have a sip of wine once in a while, but Toby was bad enough without adding alcohol to the mix.

"My pa usedta let me have a drink," Merle informed her. RickyJo did not even bother to respond to that. She just cocked her hand up on her hip and looked at him like he was the craziest person on earth. If Merle wanted to look to anyone for an example of proper parenting, his father was about third down from the last on that list.

The governor and the rest of the guys were climbing all over the trucks, yelling about what they found and shooting off some of the guns at any biter that had the misfortune of getting too close. RickyJo leaned against the side of one of the trucks, hoping they would hurry up and get done horsing around so she could go home and scrub herself in a hot shower. Near the man she shot, a piece of metal was reflecting the light.

The shiny object caught her eye. She glanced around to make sure no on was paying her any attention. Then she knelt down near the dead man, being careful to avoid stepping in the large puddle of blood spread out around his head. It was ring of keys. Spare keys to what looked like every truck here and maybe some other ones too. RickyJo's hands were shaking and her heart was beating so hard she could hear it in her ears. She unclipped the ring from his belt loop and slipped it into the pocket of her pants.

 ****Toby is an OC of mine that also appeared in my story Wild Horses, so if you read that one you will recognize him and his antics from that story. As always read, enjoy, and review. Thanks to anyone that already took the time to leave me one. ****


	11. Chapter 11

Five Minute Window

Chapter 11

Andrea walked into the apartment building that RickyJo had told her she lived in. The kitchen was on the first floor to the left and that was where they had planned to meet. Michonne was walking along behind Andrea, not quite as pissed off looking now that she had her sword strapped to her back again. When she said she was going over to have dinner with RickyJo, Andrea expected Michonne to fight her on it. Like she had been fighting her on everything since they got here. But Michonne only nodded and followed her out the door.

Michonne saw everything in clear cut shades of black and white. There was no in between. RickyJo had helped her get her sword back. So RickyJo had now been placed into the category of people that Michonne felt might be worthy of her trust.

The smell of food cooking got stronger as she walked, so Andrea was confident she was heading in the right direction. She could also hear some music playing, along with the mingled sounds of laughter. Laughter. It had been so long since she heard the sound of it. So long since she laughed herself. Andrea knew Michonne was hesitant to stay here, but they needed this. They needed a break. Or at the very least she needed one. It was hard to say, maybe Michonne liked being out there.

There was an open doorway on the right, and inside, Andrea was happy to see she found RickyJo. The woman was in the kitchen talking with a black kid, who looked like he was about the same age as Carl the last time she saw him. The kid had a lopsided ratty looking afro and a pair of bright red Air Jordan sneakers on. RickyJo was laughing at something the boy was telling her while she chopped up a big head of cauliflower on a wooden cutting board.

Andrea knocked on the door frame to alert the other woman of her presence. RickyJo turned, giving her a big smile. She set down her knife and headed over to wrap her arms around Andrea and give her a kiss on the cheek. Since Michonne didn't seem overly keen on conact of the human variety, RickyJo just gave her a nod and told her hello and welcome.

Once Andrea was inside, she saw the room was much bigger than it looked. It was clearly a communal space, probably used by most of the people in this building. The large fluffy dog Andrea had seen earlier was lying under a table. Chips opened his eyes when he heard the women come in, but then promptly shut them again. RickyJo opened the fridge and pulled out a large bottle of wine. She was already working on her first glass, but she got two more glasses down and filled them for Andrea and Michonne. Then she introduced them to the boy who was washing a bowl of lettuce in the sink.

"This is Toby," she said, putting her hand on the boy's shoulder and giving him a smile. She opened her mouth to tell Toby who the women were, but he spoke up first.

"That one is Andrea," he announced with certainty, pointing at the blonde woman.

"How do you know that?," Andrea asked the boy. He gave her a wicked smile and held his hands up in front of his chest like he was grabbing imaginary breasts.

"Cause my Uncle Merle told me that Andrea was the bitch with the killer rack," Toby announced. Andrea stood there a minute like she couldn't believe what was just said to her. Then she started laughing.

"TOBY!," RickyJo scolded the boy. Her mouth was hanging open and she was really trying not to laugh. "That is not appropriate conversation."

"Well yell at Merle then, he's the motherfucker that said it," Toby suggested to her. RickyJo took a deep breath.

"That don't mean it bears repeatin'," she informed him, trying her best to sound like she meant business. How many times had she told Merle to stop saying shit like that to Toby, and how many times had she told Toby to stop repeating the crap that Merle said to him. The two of them were impossible.

"Why don't you go find Merle and tell him to come home for dinner?," RickyJo suggested to the boy. Toby didn't need to be told twice. Hanging around with Merle was better than being in the kitchen with a bunch of stupid girls. Even if one of them did have a nice rack. Toby whistled for Chips and the two of them took off down the hall like a tornado of destruction.

Andrea set her wine down and started washing the salad greens Toby had been sorting out in the sink. Michonne had been forced out of the doorway when the kid and dog barrelled through. She came in and sat down on the counter near where RickyJo was chopping up vegetables. She looked uncomfortable, but not as uncomfortable as she had when she had been eating breakfast with Milton and the Governor.

"I was going to make veggie curry," RickyJo told them, "I hope that's ok with you both." Andrea said it sounded wonderful and Michonne simply nodded. Something about the way Michonne was looking at her made RickyJo nervous. She had a feeling the woman was getting ready to start asking her questions. Questions that she wasn't going to be able to answer. To her relief, Andrea was the one that started talking. Her questions were easy to answer.

"So what's with the ring?," she asked, reaching over to grab the ring RickyJo had hanging from the thin gold chain around her neck. It was gold with a big ass gaudy diamond on it. An engagement ring. And Andrea knew RickyJo didn't have anything like that the last time she saw her. So it must be new.

"Oh we got married," RickyJo said, keeping her tone casual. Andrea could see the little half smile on her face.

"Who got married? You and Merle?," she asked. Last she knew RickyJo was gay as the day was long. So this was blowing her mind.

"Yeah, we got married," RickyJo said. She could feel her cheeks getting hot. No one in Woodbury knew about her past. So no one made a big deal or asked her questions about sex with a man and why she would want to have it. They were just accepted as a couple. "He got me this really nice ring, but it doesn't fit so I keep it on this chain instead..." RickyJo knew she was rambling. She unbuttoned her jeans and pulled down one side of her pants to reveal the star tattoo she had on her hip. Above it was a name written in cursive. Andrea leaned down to get a better look.

"We got each other's names tattooed," RickyJo told her, "Just don't ask ta see Merle's tattoo unless ya wanna be scarred for life." That set Andrea off laughing, and even Michonne smilled a little. But Andrea was not going to be distracted by a tattoo from what she really wanted to know.

"Um, what happened to being a lesbian?," Andrea asked. Michonne snorted, almost inhaling wine into her nose. She gagged and coughed into her glass. That information was rather shocking. She had a hard time imagining why any woman would want to be married to a brute like Merle, and why a gay woman would want to was even more baffling to her.

"I just needed a good hard fuckin' to straighten me out," RickyJo told her, lowering her voice in an obvious imitation of Merle's. Andrea and her really laughed it up over that. If RickyJo had a nickle for everytime she had heard that since she slept with Merle, she'd have a lot of nickles.

"Really this time, what the hell is the deal?," Andrea asked. She took the clean lettuce out and RickyJo handed her the salad spinner so she could dry it off. Before she answered, RickyJo got the bottle of wine out and refilled her glass. She took a few healthy gulps of wine and put the cut veggies in the pan to start them cooking as she thought about the answer to that particular question. It was a hard thing to explain without getting into parts of her past that she would rather not talk about.

"When he lost his hand," she finally said, "He almost died..." RickyJo paused a moment, not wanting to get overwhelmed with the sudden rush of emotion. "I don't know. I guess when stuff like that happens, it makes you realize how much people mean to you." She felt Andrea's arms circle her waist and she turned to hug the other woman back. She knew they had not known each other that long before her and Merle got separated from the group, but it was still nice to have someone around that she considered a friend.

Andrea drank some wine, and told RickyJo a little about what happened with Shane. This involved a lot more laughter. Then she asked where the bathroom was. Andrea headed down the hall, leaving RickyJo and Michonne alone in the kitchen. RickyJo felt it again. The pregnant silence that had been there between them before Andrea started asking questions about Merle and her love life. Michonne was not one to waste words.

"Thank you for earlier," she said, fingering the sheath of her sword. She paused and RickyJo hoped she was done talking. But of course she had a question.

"What did he do to you?," Michonne asked.

"What do you mean?," RickyJo said, trying to sound like she had no idea what the other woman was talking about. She was not a very good actress. Still feeling shaken up over what happened wasn't helping either. She had been holding in how she really felt about Phillip for such a long time. The keys to the armored trucks were burning hot in her pocket. RickyJo had yet to find a good place to hide them. She had to find a way to make Merle understand that they had to get out of here. A way that wasn't going to make him go psycho crazy and try to kill the governor himself. The urge to confide in someone was almost overpowering.

"You know what I mean," Michonne said. She had turned in time to see the look on RickyJo's face when that man had grabbed her by the arm before he shut the door. The Governor. The look on RIckyJo's face had been one of complete terror. And Michonne had a funny feeling that this woman didn't scare easy. It sent a chill right up Michonne's spine. In that moment she knew what she suspected about the man was true. He was a monster.

"The questions you have... I just can't answer," RickyJo told her, refusing to look up from the food she was robotically stirring around in the pan. "I can give you a piece of advice if you give me your word that you won't repeat it to anyone," RickyJo said. Her voice was so low it was barely above a whisper.

Michonne lifted herself down from the counter and moved closer to the other woman. She placed her hand gently on RickyJo's arm, feeling a strange jolt pass through her body when her skin came into contact with the other woman's. Andrea was coming back from the bathroom. Michonne heard the door slap shut. If she was going to hear what this woman was thinking about telling her, she needed to hear it now. RickyJo swallowed hard. Then she leaned close. The tip of her nose bumped into one of Michonne's twisted dreads. Then she hissed under her breath. She gripped Michonne's arm like a drowning man holding on for dear life.

"The first chance you get, you leave this place," RickyJo told her, "Run away and don't ever come back. When you run be ready. Because he will send men after you."

As quickly as they had moved into each other's space, both women jumped back. Michonne picked up her wine and RickyJo went back to mixing curry paste into the vegetables. When Andrea walked back into the room a few seconds later, it was like nothing ever happened at all.


	12. Chapter 12

Five Minute Window

Chapter 12

Too much wine. RickyJo had to concentrate to walk straight. She put one foot in front of the other, heading into Toby's room. The boy was already fast asleep, despite the argument he had been putting on about not wanting to go to bed. He looked so much younger when he was asleep. Awake, the hard lessons life had taught him showed on his face. She leaned down, pressing a soft kiss to his forehead. He smelled like toothpaste.

Grasping the blankets, RickyJo pulled them up and tucked them in around the boy. She had to fight the urge to crawl under the blankets with him and snuggle close to absorb some of his body heat. If Toby was a few years younger she might have done it, just like she used to crawl into her neices beds and fall asleep with their tiny warm bodies hugged close to her. But the truth was, Toby at the age where he was starting to mess his sheets at night. And not with pee. Even if she still thought of him as a child, he was far too old to be snuggling in bed with a woman that wasn't even his real mother.

RickyJo sufficed herself with one more rub on the soft sponge of his hair. The back of her hand brushing softly across his still babishly round cheek. Then she headed out into the living room, clicking Toby's bedroom door shut behind her. Her bare foot came down on one of her own kicked off boots and she stumbled a little, catching herself on the back of a chair to keep from falling. Chips let out a startled bark, settling back down quickly when he saw the sudden loud noise was being made only by his drunken mistress and not some random intruder. A quiet chuckle coming from the couch caught RickyJo's attention and she looked over to see Merle leaning back into the cushions smiling at her.

"Had a little wine tonight, did ya?," he asked her. She wanted to shrug her shoulders, but that just felt like it would take more coordination than she had left in her. So she just kept hold of her grip on the chair and smiled back at him. He was up and crossing the room to get to her before she could stumble again. With his arm around her waist, he pulled her over to the small and mostly non functioning kitchenette area. A small blue pill was pressed into one of her hands, and a glass of water into the other. Her birth control pill. She tossed it down her throat, thankful that Merle was sober enough to remind her to take it. The last thing they needed was another accident.

"Good girl," he told her when he saw she was chugging down the entire glass of water and not just the small sip she needed to wash the pill down. Once the glass was empty, he took it from her and set it on the counter. She stared up at him, blinking her eyes like she was trying hard to focus them. This was not the first time she had drunk herself stupid. Lately RickyJo had been drinking a lot more than what was typical for her. And when she wasn't doing that, she was tossing back xanax like candy so she could get to sleep at night. Something was bothering her and whatever it was, she seemed hell bent on keeping it to herself.

"Want to tell me what's tha matter wit'ya?," he asked. She was drunk, so he was hoping she might let something slip. RickyJo shook her head, which made the room spin even more than it already was. What was the matter with her? She was so drunk that for a moment, she wasn't sure why she had gotten herself that way. Then she remembered. The Governor. Her face twisted up into a little scowl at the mere thought of the man.

She was angry at Phillip for being a disgusting pervert. Angry at herself because she felt helpless. She was afraid. He was not invited over for dinner. Only Andrea and Michonne were. But he came anyway. Smiling his big fake shit pig fucker smile. And then he had ignored RickyJo all night and spent all of his time fawning all over Andrea. RickyJo's first instinct was to warn the woman about him. But self preservation kicked in kept her silent. If he wanted decided he liked Andrea, maybe Phillip would turn his attention to her leave RickyJo alone. She was glad. But then RickyJo started thinking what that disgusting man might do to Andrea once he had her alone. Guilt was added to the heavy mountain of secrets that RickyJo was carefully balancing on her shoulders.

She was not going to tell Merle. Not one word of what was going on. The thought of him reacting in anger and doing something to get himself killed was more than she could take. But she was way too drunk to think up a convincing lie about what was bothering her. So instead of talking she let her arms snake up around his neck as she pressed her body up flush against his. She was sloppy drunk and her legs felt like jello. When she tried to kiss him, she knocked her head into his.

His body was against her, shaking with another soft chuckle. Laughing at her silly drunken advances. Then she felt his hand come up, twisting into the hair at the base of her neck. He guided her so their lips were almost touching. She was so eager, grasping at his neck and shoulders as she tried to pull his mouth closer to hers. But he remained as immobile as a statue. The tip of his nose was touching hers, and he moved his head just slightly from side to side, giving her what her little neices used to like to call a eskimo kiss.

She was straining a little at the grasp he had on her, pulling her own hair. There were a lot of times when Merle wished he had his hand back. When his face itched while he was taking a piss. Anytime he had food on his plate that needed to be cut up. When people complemented him on his shooting and he thought about how much better he used to be when he still had his dominant hand. But none more than when he had RickyJo in his arms. Right this moment was a classic example. He wanted nothing more than to roam the length of her body, but he had his only good hand buried in her hair.

He moved his face closer to hers, slipping the tip of his tounge out and tracing the outline of her lips with it. She smelled like soap and tasted like the wine she had been drinking. Her lips parted and she let out a soft little moan. It was always the soft little sounds that came out of her that made him come undone. Not that other women were quiet during sex. Some of them screamed like monkeys and others swore like sailors. But not a single one ever made sweet little moans and murmurs like the ones RickyJo made.

Merle had been intent on having a little fun with her, teasing her and maybe making her beg a little for what she wanted. When it came to their lovemaking, he often started out with similar intentions. _Please, I need you_. Words he never thought he would ever hear come floating out of her mouth. To hear her say it drove him out of his mind crazy with lust for her. But like this night, he often found himself unable to hold back. He was hungry for the taste of her and the feel of her naked breasts pressed against his chest.

He let go of her hair, his mouth crashing down against hers. He started to walk her backwards towards their bedroom, but she was stumbling over her own feet. So he lifted her up into his arms. Just like he had been the first time he picked her up, he was always surprised at how heavy and solid she felt in his arms. She was strong. He liked the feel of her, it reminded him that he didn't have to be as gentle and careful with her as he sometimes felt like he needed to be. She was not some fragile china doll. He wasn't going to break her.

Once they were in their bedroom, he kicked the door shut behind them and set her down on the floor next to the bed. Merle was fumbling with his own clothes, his metal sleeve having already been removed and discarded on the little table in the living room. RickyJo was doing the same. Her balance was off from how drunk she was, and when she tried to kick her jeans off she stumbled and nearly fell. Merle's hand shot out, grasping her by the upper part of her arm to keep her from falling.

He heard it then. The sharp intake of her breath. A little hiss of pain. And Merle knew he had not grabbed her hard enough to hurt her.

"What happened to yer arm?," he asked. He pulled her closer, trying to get a look at her injury. She yanked away, almost falling again.

"Nothin'," she insisted. She sat down hard on the edge of the bed, pulling her tank top off over her head and then reaching behind her back to unhook her bra. Her naked breasts came spilling out, the tips pebbling up from the sudden rush of cool air. But Merle was not going to let himself be distracted again. He took her arm gently in his grasp. All her tattoos made it hard to be able to tell if she had any marks on her. But there was a open space. The tender flesh on the inside of her arm. He saw two finger sized bruises. The rest were disguised by one of her tattoos, but he could see them there plain as day. Someone had grabbed her hard enough to leave a handprint behind.

Merle racked his brain, the first person he was thinking to blame was himself. They got a little carried away sometimes, when they were play wrestling or sometimes even when they were having sex. It would not be the first time he had left a bruise on her. Or that she had left one on him. But this was the wrong arm. He would have had to grab her with the hand he didn't have to leave that mark.

"Who grabbed ya?," he asked her. She tried looking down, but he brought his hand up under her chin to tilt her head up. "Tell me." She just looked up at him, her hands rising to glide over the hard muscles of his stomach. Moving down to work at the button and the zipper of his pants. "Was that fucking army fucker, wasn't it?," he asked. She seemed a little shaken up earlier, when they were driving that armored truck back to town. That bastard must have tried something with her.

"Yes," RickyJo lied, "Let's juss forget 'bout it okay baby?." With that she drew him out of his pants and leaned forward, flicking her tounge over the tip of his swollen dick. His hips bucked forward and she let him plunge into her mouth. He pumped in and out of her a few times, pushing almost all the way back into her throat. Then he was pushing himself back and gesturing for her to get up onto the bed.

The last stich of clothing she had on were a wipsy little pair of underpants. She pushed them down and kicked them off onto the floor. Then she slid up onto the bed and lay back to nestle her head into his pillow. Her knees were slightly bent, giving him a peek of the cleft between her legs. He was fumbling around, trying to get the rest of his clothes off as fast as possible without taking his eyes off her body.

When he started climbing across the bed towards her, she parted her legs to he could lie between them. She knew there was a chance that in his impatience to possess her Merle might shove his hard length directly inside her without warning. And she was too drunk to care or complain about it. She was eager to lose herself in his arms and forget everything that happened earlier that day. He stopped about half way up her body, using his forearms to push her thighs further apart.

As soon as she felt the tip of his tounge glide over her hip she let out a soft moan, her back arching and her hips lifting off the bed. He was tracing over the lines of the little tattoos she had on the insides of her hips with the tip of his tounge. She reached above her head, gripping the pillow her head was resting on and digging her nails into the soft fabric. To have his mouth so close to her opening but not to be touching it was agony of the absolute best kind. She bit down on her lip, trying to roll her hips despite the fact that he was holding her still beneath him.

She was throbbing and aching with need. Her eyes were closed and her toes were curled up. She felt his breath on her first, quickly followed by the expert flick of his tounge. Two more like that and she was arching her back, moaning and gasping his name. He moved up and she let go of the pillow and used her hands to help pull his mouth towards hers. At the same time he entered her mouth with his tounge, he pushed his manhood deep inside her. She gasped and jerked her mouth back from his. The sensation of having him push inside her was always shocking no matter how used to it she thought she was. He always felt bigger and harder than she remembered from the last time.

"Y'alright?," he asked before he moved again. She nodded and rocked up with her hips, taking the last bit of him into her. Now he was the one making noises, a low deep sound that sounded like it was half moan and half growl came out of him. He put his mouth back on hers, kissing her deeply. She could taste herself on him and she bucked up harder with her hips, sucking hard on his tounge. He was moving hard and fast now, and she wiggled and arched her back until he was hitting the spot deep inside her that felt better than anything else in the world.

A shudder ran through his body and she knew he had found his release. Before he could withdraw, she gripped him hard on the ass with both hands, pumping up with her hips. He had his face buried in her hair and he was mumbling a string of dirty words with his hot breath on her ear. One. Two. Three more times she rocked her hips against what reamined of his erection until she felt her orgasm coursing through her. The spasms came from deeper inside her, so much different from the pleasure she got when he used his mouth on her. Her cousin Jess always used to tell her that the orgasm she had during sex with a man was different from the one she had during oral, but RickyJo never really believed her until she had one of her own. After that she couldn't get enough.

"Yer gonna fuckin' kill me woman," he mumbled, rolling off her and yanking the blankets up over them both. Toby had been told about a thousand times that a closed bedroom door meant they were not to be disturbed, but that didn't stop the fucking kid from flinging it open anytime he felt like it. Little bastard. He was a tough little shit though, Merle had to give him that.

"Whatcha thinkin' bout," RickyJo asked. She was lying on her own pillow now, turned towards him and she saw the corners of his mouth twitch up.

"Nuttin," he said, "jus' thinkin' maybe after this stupid party shit is over with we can all go huntin' later this week. You, me, Chips, and the kid." The kid meant Toby. Merle only called him by his name if he was hollering at him for something.

RickyJo leaned over, giving Merle a lingering kiss on the lips. "I would like that," she told him. Then she nestled down into the crook of his shoulder. The thought of being alone with her family outside the walls was very appealing and RickyJo feel asleep dreaming about how maybe once they were out, they could just keep on walking and never have to come back here.


	13. Chapter 13

Five Minute Window

Chapter 13

Darting to the left, RickyJo missed the frisbee that Toby was throwing for her. Chips jumped up and snagged it, then took off running like biters were after him. The silly dog was going to do the same thing he always did. Run like hell until he found a place to hide and then chew that frisbee to shreds. Toby took off after the dog, cursing loudly. He attracted the attention of a few people that were sipping on lemonade nearby. A few of them laughed. Karen, one of Toby's failed foster mothers, just watched the boy go and gave RickyJo a sympathetic shake of her head.

Karen gestured for RickyJo to join her, but the woman was already walking towards the little group that had gathered near the front gates. She had been watching them closely, which is why she missed the frisbee in the first place. Michonne and Andrea were packed up to leave. RickyJo had kept her face neutral when she saw them heading for the gate but inside she had been cheering them on. _Run. Run fast and get away from this place while you still can._ But now the two women were standing near the gate arguing. Merle was holding the gate open, looking amused with the situation.

"Y'all can't leave during the middle of the party," RickyJo called over to the women once she was close enough that she didn't have to shout. "We're going ta have a barbecue and everythin'," she said. She caught Michonne's eye long enough to let the woman know she was play acting.

"Why don't we give it a few days Michonne?," Andrea asked. It's not like they wouldn't be able to leave later if they decided they didn't like it here. Michonne was acting weird. She was insisting they leave the first safe place they found to stay in, and she was refusing to tell Andrea why. All she would say is she got a bad feeling about this place and the man they called the governor.

"My mind is made up," Michonne told the other woman. Andrea was thinking with her crotch instead of her head. She had some sort of physical attraction to the leader of this group and she was letting it cloud her judgement. Michonne ground her teeth, thinking about the conversation they had the night before. _What happened between us didn't mean anything to you, did it? God Michonne, we were alone so long. We were both lonely, don't make more of it than what it was._

"Well then, have a safe journey," RickyJo told her. She leaned in to hug Michonne, ignoring the cockeyed look that Merle was giving her. Then she grasped the woman's hand. Once she did that, Michonne understood what the woman was doing. She felt the same strange electricity where RickyJo's warm fingers touched her and then the press of a folded up piece of paper being placed into her hand.

"Are you coming with me?," Michonne asked Andrea. Andrea stepped back and away from the woman, shaking her head. The governor put his arm around her and eased the bag she was carrying down off her shoulder. Michonne gave her one last hard look and then turned her back on the woman. She stalked out the gate and Merle snapped it shut behind her.

Michonne kept the folded paper crumbled up in her hand until she knew she was out of sight. She was curious and once she darted into the woods, she opened her hand and hurried to unfold the paper. It was folded up tight, and once unfolded it was much larger than she expected. She had guessed the woman might be passing her a note, and in her heart of hearts, she hoped it was a note telling from RickyJo telling her where they could meet later. She hated leaving the other woman behind and hoped she might be willing to leave Woodbury with her. But it was not a note. It was a map. Not what she had been hoping for but infinitely more vaulable. Woodbury was marked on the map, along with all the places outside the town where they kept things. Stores they had cleared. Red circles where larger herds of biters tended to build up. There was a trail marked in purple, leading away from the town. In small even handwriting the same color as the trail, it said **your best chance**.

TWD

The governor showed Andrea around all day, his arm around her and his hand resting on her waist. She noticed more than a few woman giving her envious looks. Once the picnic party was over, she assumed he might take her back to his apartment. Where they could be alone. But instead he led her to another part of town. Lots of people were walking along, heading in the same general direction. From the excited energy in the air, Andrea assumed there was some sort of entertainment planned. Maybe a movie or some live music.

There was some tiered seating set up, and people were filling in, looking for friends they planned to sit with or just looking for a good spot. But instead of a stage, there was a circle of hard packed dirt surrounded by walkers that were tied up with chains around their necks. Andrea was confused, since what was in front of her looking like some sort of fighting arena.

The governor guided her with his hand on her elbow. People made sure to scoot out of his way as he climbed to the top row and took a seat next to RickyJo and the boy Andrea had met the night before. The dog was absent, maybe locked up back in her apartment to keep it from trying to get involved in whatever was about to happen. And Andrea noticed RickyJo looked a lot different from how she had been dressed for the picnic earlier. She had been wearing a long maxi dress that swished when she walked and a pair of sandals with her hair falling down loose around her face. Now she was in dark jeans and a black tank top, with leather fingerless gloves on her hands and combat boots on her feet. Her hair was slicked back into one long braid that fell down over her shoulder.

Merle was no where to be seen. Andrea was about to ask RickyJo where he was when he walked out into the middle of the clearing. People started clapping and whistling. He yelled a few things at the crowd, getting them even more excited than they already were. Then another man from town entered and the two of them started beating the crap out of each other. When Merle shoved the other man dangerously close to one of the chained biters, Andrea couldn't keep her mouth shut anymore.

"What the hell is this?," she cursed, standing up and looking down at the man that ran this town. He pulled her back down into her seat. Leaning close he spoke into her ear so no one else would hear him.

"It's staged," he said, "the biters don't have any teeth." While that made Andrea feel slightly better, and also a little silly, she still didn't like what was going on. Leaning across the man she slapped at RickyJo's knee to get her attention.

"You approve of this?," she asked the other woman. Her question made the governor start laughing. RickyJo waved her off and went back to watching the fight. The boy next to her was on his feet, screaming for Merle to beat the fucking ass of the man he was fighting. "What's so funny?," Andrea finally asked, getting the feeling that she was about to be made to feel stupid for the second time in a row. He laughed again.

"You, asking RickyJo if she approves of the fighting," he said.

"Why is that funny?," Andrea said, not willing to let the subject drop.

"She's the reigning female champion," he said, "I won't let her fight men so she fights the other women two at a time. She's up next." Andrea glanced over at the other woman, looking at her with new eyes. Well at least what he said explained the funny way she was dressed. Andrea thought about getting up and leaving. She was not sure she approved of violence for fun when there was so much real violence and death in the world.

But the prospect of watching RickyJo fight two other girls at once was enticing. Watching her play wrestle people back at camp had always been a source of amusement. The funniest time was the time she caught an angry possum by the tail and tossed in the tent with Daryl while he was changing his clothes. Then she led the man on a merry chase all around camp for most of the morning, laughing and taunting him. Andrea decided to stay in her seat and watch what happened.

Merle had the other man on the ground, looking like he was not going to get back up. The fight was over. RickyJo swung her legs over the back of the bench she was sitting on and vaulted to the ground. She headed around and down into the fighting pit, skirting around the chained walkers. Merle scooped her up into his arms, giving her a big sloppy kiss in front of everyone. This made the everyone start whooping and hollering. He lowered the woman back to her feet and gave the man he had been fighting a hand up. They headed out of the arena and took a spot on one of the benches.

Andrea was concerned for the man that Merle had been beating on, but she saw he was sitting with Merle drinking a bottled beer. The people sitting closest to the men were wacking the two men on the back, smiling and laughing. When she looked back down to the pit, there were in deed two women circling RickyJo, looking ready to fight.

One of the women, Andrea had met already. Her name was Karen, she had shown Andrea and Michonne around town a little the day before. The other girl's name Andrea didn't know, but she had seen her taking watch duty up on the wall with a bow and arrow. Andrea recognized the baseball cap the young woman was wearing. Despite the fact that both women looked thinner and smaller than RickyJo, they seemed to at least have some sort of strategy worked out. Karen was keeping RickyJo's attention, darting in to punch her and getting her attacks deflected, while the other girl circled around behind the woman.

Once she was out of RickyJo's line of sight, the younger woman charged her with her fists up. Not the smartest move. RickyJo ducked out of the way at the last second, sticking her leg out and sending the girl flying into Karen. They both toppled to the ground and the girl got grabbed by one of the chained walkers. Toothless or not, the girl started screaming like it was the end of her life. Karen grabbed her by the shirt to yank her back and her tank top ripped off. People cheered like crazy over that, and Andrea guessed by the smile on RickyJo's face that this was all part of the show. The girl had probably pre-cut her shirt so it would rip easier.

Once all the woman were back on their feet, the fight went on. Andrea found she was enjoying herself after all, especially once she knew for sure that the whole thing was for show and no one was going to be bitten or beaten to death. The worst hit was when RickyJo backhanded the younger woman in the mouth and made her spit blood. The girl was done after that and hauled ass over to sit with Merle and the man he had been fighting. They gave her a cold bottle of beer to hold against her face.

Karen held out a little longer, but it was obvious to Andrea that RickyJo was just toying with the woman. She had seen her hold her own wrestling Daryl back at the quarry, so a smallish woman like Karen wasn't much of a challenge. RickyJo eventually tackled her down on the ground and held the woman in an uncomfortable position until she tapped out. After she let Karen go, RickyJo stood up and put her fists in the air, bringing on loud cheering from the crowd.

Despite her reservations, Andrea found herself cheering and clapping along with everyone else. That had at least been entertaining, she would admit it. She felt the light pressure of the governor's arm going around her waist again and when she turned to speak to him, his lips were pressing down on hers.


	14. Chapter 14

Five Minute Window

Chapter 14

Maggie twisted her shoulders, trying to test the tape that held her wrists together behind her back. All she succeded in doing was ripping out some arm hair and giving herself a painful knot in the muscles of her neck. The only thing she could hear was the wet smacking sounds mixed in with the muffled thuds. Glenn was in the next room having the shit beaten out of him in the next room by Daryl's deranged brother.

She could feel the tears threatening behind her eyes, but she choked them back. That man had put her here for a reason. He wanted her to listen. He wanted to scare her. She needed to show him that she was not going to crack this easy. The noises stopped and she heard the sounds of Glenn being questioned again. Maggie was having a hard time understanding why they didn't just tell this man where his brother was. Certainly he didn't mean his own brother any harm. Maggie had heard bits and pieces about Daryl's missing brother, but like everyone else, she had assumed he was dead.

The door to the room Maggie was in swung open. She expected to see Daryl's brother in the doorway, ready to serve up another helping of what he had been feeding Glenn. But there was a woman there instead. She was on the tall side with long dark blonde hair. And she was covered in tattoos. In her right hand, she was holding a wicked looking hunting knife. The same style Daryl favored.

For a moment, Maggie was afraid the woman was going to use the knife to hurt her. But all she did was squat down behind Maggie's chair and cut the tape that was holding her wrists together. The woman held her finger to her lips. A silent warning for Maggie to keep quiet. The woman lay down on the floor by the door, peeking out under the crack. Maggie heard the tread of boots passing by the door. Once the sound trailed off down the hall, the woman was on her feet, signaling Maggie to follow her.

Since she didn't have too many more appealing options, Maggie followed the woman, closing the door quietly behind her. They stalked down the hall to the room where Glenn was being held. The door was locked, but just with a slide lock from the outside. The woman slid it open slowly so it didn't make noise. Then she opened the door. When she saw what was going on inside, the woman rushed in.

Glenn was still taped to a chair. He was trying to fight off the walker that was coming at him, and not doing a very good job. All of a sudden, the walker was being stabbed in the head but someone standing behind it. It dropped to the ground, all the undead life gone now that it had been pierced through the brain. Once it was down, Glenn almost couldn't believe his eyes. RickyJo was standing there, and Maggie behind her. Glenn almost started crying he was so happy.

"Shut the door," she told Maggie, who moved quickly to comply. Then RickyJo moved forward, using the knife she was holding to free Glenn from the tape that was holding him. She guided him into another chair, sitting him down and feeling his face gently with the tips of her fingers to see if any of his bones were broken. He winced at her touch, but held still and let her do what she felt needed to be done.

"Can you walk?," she asked him. Glenn nodded, swallowing a mouthful of his own blood and then wishing he had spit it out.

"RickyJo," Glenn gasped, "It's good to see you." She smiled, taking her fingers away from his face and leaning down to wrap her arms around him. Carefully, like she didn't want to hurt him worse than he already was. He wrapped his arms around her, getting a chunk of her hair stuck to the tape on his arm. He used his other hand to help unstick it without ripping her hair out.

"You too," she said. She turned back to look at Maggie before she mentioned, "Doing well for yourself I see." Glenn nodded again. Maggie was a beautiful woman. That thought had crossed his mind many times, but never as a negative until Merle snatched them up.

"I am taking you back to your people," RickyJo said, noting the hopeful expression on Glenn's face. "But I want to come with you," she asked, "I don't want to stay here anymore."

"Of course you can," Glenn told her, one of his hands coming up to grip her empty one. She squeezed back and then ran to the door, peeking out into the hall like she was afraid someone might be coming back soon.

"I've got a car hid nearby," she said, her voice just above a whisper, "how far is yer camp from here?"

"Not far at all," Glenn told her, hugging Maggie to him and letting her kiss the side of his mouth that was not as swollen as the rest, "we have been staying at the prison. North of Highway 34." RickyJo nodded. There was no hesitation in his voice. He trusted her completely.

"Is Daryl alright?," she asked. Glenn could hear the concern in her voice for the man. Glenn had been uncertain about the exact nature of their relationship, but he knew they had been close.

"Yeah, he's there," Maggie said, finally speaking up so Glenn wouldn't have to talk with his swollen bloody mouth.

"Who else made it," RickyJo asked, opening the door a crack and peeking out into the hall again. She stuffed her knife back into the sheath on her belt.

"Rick, Carol, Carl, I think that's it that you know," Glenn said, "Maggie's family and a few inmates that were left in the prison when we got there."

RickyJo jumped back from the door as it was swung into the room with such force that the doorknob made a hole in the wall behind it. A tall man Glenn had not seen before came in, with Merle and another stranger behind him. The other man was hispanic, and he was holding Glenn's watch in his hands. Merle had taken it from him when he searched him for weapons. The tall man got close to RickyJo, looking down at her threateningly. Glenn scrambled to his feet, shoving Maggie behind him.

"How long?," RickyJo asked the hispanic man. He gave her a big smile.

"A minute and a half," he informed her.

"Ha," she said to the tall man, shoving him back away from her and holding out her hand. "Pay up." The tall man laughed. The sound made Glenn's skin crawl. The man pulled a pack of cigarrettes out of his back pocket and slapped them into RickyJo's open hand. She darted around him, telling Merle and the hispanic man the same thing. _Pay up assholes._ Just like the tall man had down they each shoved a pack of smokes at her. She wrinkled up her nose at the green and white pack the hispanic man handed her.

"Menthols?," she asked. "This is some fuckin' bullshit Ceasar." Merle laughed. "Whatever fucker, you're the one that's goin' ta be smokin' em," she informed him.

"That was some impressive shit there babydoll," Merle informed her, pulling her close and kissing her hard on the mouth. His hand reaching down to grab a handful of the roundest part of her ass. Glenn was confused. He was starting to think that he has just been played but didn't want to believe that RickyJo would do something like that to him. Sure she had punched him that one time, when she had taken his car to go after Merle. But other than that she had always been cool with him. They had gone on a lot of runs into the city alone together. Quiet and quick. He considered her a friend.

"What the hell is going on RickyJo?," Glenn finally spit out. She turned and gave him a wicked smile. It hit him then. She was acting. Not before, but now. This was a show she was putting on. When she had been in the room alone before. That was the real her. Not this uncaring monster.

"What's going on is I wanted to know where my husband's brother is," she told them, "and I didn't feel like wasting time letting him beat it out of you." Her eyes flicked towards Maggie. Glenn could only imagine what these men would have done to her to get the information they wanted. And then what she just said registered in his mind. Her husband. What the hell alternate universe had he stumbled into. Last he knew RickyJo was into women. The last thing he expected was to hear that she was married. To Merle.

"What should we do with them now, Governor?," the hispanic man asked. He was not asking RickyJo, or Merle. He was talking to the tall man. This man was a governor? Whoever he was he was clearly in charge. Glenn was even more confused than he had been before, but what the man said in response made his blood run cold.

"Take them out and throw them in the screamer pits," the governor said. Glenn was watching RickyJo very carefully. He saw her eyes open a little wider when the tall man said that. Then she quickly regained control of her face.

"Phillip," RickyJo said, a question in her voice. He liked the men to call him Governor, but he let her get away with using his first name. It implied she was about to ask him a personal favor, not about something that was for the good of the town. "Do you mind if we double check their story first before ya kill 'em dead?," she asked, "jus' in case?" When he turned to speak to her she gave him a big fake smile. Then she stuck a cigarette between her lips and let him light it for her, putting her hand over his while he flicked the wheel on the blue bic in his hands.

"Good idea," he said. He liked that she had asked him instead of making demands in her usual way. And he liked when she called him by his name like they were friends. He turned to Martinez.

"Keep them locked up down here for now," he said, "if they make any noise, cut the girl's hands off."


	15. Chapter 15

Five Minute Window

Chapter 15

RickyJo stalked around her apartment, shoving anything else she thought might be helpful into a bag. A small unopened package of bic lighters was the last item. She zipped up the bag she was packing for herself and shoved it behind the couch, then started on a bag for Toby. While she grabbed the things she thought the boy might need, she thought about how angry she was at herself for what she said. _We can go right now, check and make sure Daryl is there._ She had been so stupid. Of course the governor wasn't going to let her and Merle take off together to go check the prison out. He sent Merle and Martinez. He made RickyJo stay in Woodbury. To make sure Merle would come back.

A fucking hostage is what she was. She felt useless and scared, not her favorite combination of emotions. The tension was making her hands shake. Chips had been following her around the apartment, but suddenly he was at the door, wagging his fluffy tail so hard that his whole butt was moving. RickyJo shoved the bag under the table, trying to kick it further underneath with her foot and only succeding in spilling half the items out. She moved to her right to stand in front of it just as Toby came bopping inside.

He pet Chips on the head. When he looked over at RickyJo he could tell something was wrong right away. She looked scared and the smile she gave him was forced. The boy was smart, and very observant. His ability to quickly assess situations was what had kept him alive his entire life. There was a half packed bag at RickyJo's feet, and she was wearing sturdy looking traveling clothes. She was leaving. Without him. She was not even going to bother to say goodbye.

"You bitch," Toby swore, sticking up his middle finger at the woman. Toby could feel the angry tears threatening behind his eyes. He hated himself. Hated how stupid he had been to think that this woman was different from all the other 'mothers' he had. Stupid enough to think she cared about him. He wouldn't make that mistake again. Maybe he would go tell that stupid governor guy what RickyJo was up to and see how good she was at tricking people after that.

"Toby, stop," RickyJo saw the boy was about to bolt back out the door. She caught him by the arm just in time, dragging him back from the door. It was like wresting an angry anaconda. With teeth. The boy bit her hard on the arm. She shrieked, but kept hold of him as they both fell backwards onto the floor. He was kicking and hitting her, but not with very good aim, since his eyes were blurry with the tears that were filling them. RickyJo flopped him over, pinning him to the floor under her. "Toby, stop," she pleaded over the loud barking that was filling the apartment, "I was packing that bag for you." For once she was glad about how often Toby acted out. Even if someone heard them cursing and struggling, they were likely to write it off as another one of Toby's fits.

"Lying bitch!," he said, trying to spit in her face. He stopped struggling, her words making him question his resolve. His head twisted towards the spilled bag under the table.

"You can look for yerself," she said. "I'm goin' to let ya go. Do _not_ bite me again." With that RickyJo let go of the boy's arms and climbed off him. She sat back against one of the chairs, holding the spot on her arm where the boy bit her. It was already blooming up in various shades of dark red and purple. But at least he didn't break the skin this time.

Toby scrambled back. He stared at the woman a minute, thinking about running. Instead he yanked the bag out from under the table. Inside he saw his socks, an extra pair of shoes, and various other items. He was still convinced that he was being tricked. But what he saw in the bag said otherwise. RickyJo did not wear the same size shoes as he did. She would have no use for boys clothing or socks.

"I'd never go anywhere without ya Toby," RickyJo told him. He dropped the bag, tears filling his eyes now for an entirely new reason. As angry and betrayed as he felt a few moments before, now he was filled up with love and happiness. Crawling across the floor, he closed the distance between them and climbed into the woman's lap like he was a small child instead of a nearly grown man.

Toby wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her neck. He cried harder than he remembered crying since his Gran died and left him alone with no one to care for him. RickyJo held him tight as they rocked back and forth on the floor of their apartment. She smoothed the fuzzy bumps in his hair and rubbed his back. He cried hard, but not for very long before he was scrambling out of her lap, embarrassed at his own behavior. If she told his Uncle Merle about this, he would never live it down.

"S'alright," RickyJo told him, "let's jus' get yer bag packed, and then we'll pack one up for Merle too." Toby nodded and took off into his room to get the few things he didn't want to leave behind. Most of his bag ended up being filled with things for the dog, which made RickyJo smile. They stuffed his pack behind the couch next to hers and got the last empty pack out to fill for Merle.

Chips heard the noises before they did. The dog knew the sound of gunfire well. And he knew it was the sound of danger. He ran to the door, hackles raised and a low growl in his throat. RickyJo and Toby left the still empty third bag on the bed and ran for the door. Chips stayed close to them as they ran out into the hall and out the front door of the apartment building. Outside smoke was everywhere.

RickyJo got down, flattening herself out on the wooden boards of the porch and pulling Toby down with her. The whole town was in complete chaos. People were running around everywhere, shooting guns, screaming and yelling. Toby had his rifle out, but she put her hand on his to stop him from shooting. She saw Michonne, running out the front door of the governor's apartment building. Either the woman really had been lying about not having a group to go back to, or she had found one in a real big hurry.

Before she had time to think through what she was doing, RickyJo had Toby's rifle in her hands, shooting at one of the governor's soldiers that had a gun pointed at Michonne. The man was someone she knew. It gave her no pleasure to kill him, but she did it anyway. Giving Michonne cover so she could run. And run she did. She bolted across the street, heading straight for RickyJo and Toby, and ducked into the bushes in front of the porch.

"Who are these people?," RickyJo hissed.

"Merle came after me," Michonne told her. RickyJo swore under her breath. He had been gone when she woke up and she hoped that was not what he had been up to. But she wasn't surprised. "He took an Asian guy and a pretty girl off the street. This is their group come to get them back."

"Daryl? Carries a crossbow, you seen him?," RickyJo asked.

"He's with them," Michonne told her. RickyJo swore again. Then she scooted closer to the edge of the porch. She reached down and put her hand on Michonne's shoulder, giving her a gentle squeeze. Michonne put her hand over the other woman's and turned, looking up and at her with her big dark eyes. "I killed his walker daughter and stabbed him in the eye." RickyJo didn't have to ask who the woman was talking about. There was only one man in town that had a walker daughter chained up in his apartment. Phillip Blake. If walker Penny got killed, that was really going to put him over the edge. He had been trying to get RickyJo to help Milton find a cure for the girl. Like anyone that was already a bag of rotting flesh could be helped.

"Go to your right, in between the buildings there's a gap. It's blocked off from the biters but you should be able to climb over," RickyJo told her.

"Come with me," Michonne said, her voice almost pleading. She didn't want to think about what might happen to this woman if she stayed. And for a moment, RickyJo thought about it. Getting out of this place now while the entire town was in chaos was appealing. She would have hours before anyone noticed she was gone.

"I can't go without Merle," she told the woman. Michonne nodded. Without another word she took off through the bushes, heading in the direction RickyJo told her to go.

Toby had listened quietly to the entire conversation. He had a feeling something weird was going on between RickyJo and the leader of this town. The man everyone called the governor. She always tensed up when he was around. But now he knew for sure. Toby wasn't surprised. He had never trusted the man. The governor reminded him of that creepy social worker. The one with the yellow tie that had tried to touch Toby in his car on the way to the halfway house. Toby had punched that fat bastard right in the sack and then bit him so hard he almost lost a finger.

Just then, the creep in question came stumbling out of his apartment. He was leaning on that blonde woman with the nice looking titties. Toby reached over, grabbing his gun back. He peered through the scope, getting the man in his sights. But that blonde woman was in the way.

"Don't, you might hit Andrea," RickyJo told the boy when she saw what he was planning. Toby nodded and pulled his face away from the gun. He brought his thumb up, chewing at a hangnail. Then he turned to her and spoke, sounding much older than his thirteen years.

"Let's go find Merle and get the hell out of here then."


	16. Chapter 16

Five Minute Window

Chapter 16

 **** Some of the events from Here to Stay will be incorporated into this story in the near future. Mostly those involving RickyJo's cousin Jessica. So if you haven't read that story I would suggest reading at least the first half so you can get the backstory on what has been going on with Jessica and Morgan up to the point of the clear episode. As always thanks a ton to everyone that took the time to leave a review. ****

Toby's held tight to her hand, and RickyJo squeezed back with equal force. Since there had been a lot of shooting, she was able to ask everyone if they had seen Merle without arousing any suspicion. Unfortunately, no one had seen him. They had been searching around town for a damn hour now. RickyJo was staring to get worried.

Martinez came out with a bullhorn, telling everyone to go the arena. RickyJo hoped they were just trying to get everyone into the same area so they could see if anyone was missing. She thought about sending Toby back to the apartment to hide and keep an eye on Chips, but she knew it was useless. He was not going to leave her side.

Phillip looked like shit. He had a patch of gauze taped over his face and there was blood oozing out from under it, dripping down over his cheek. RickyJo kept her face neutral, but inside she was laughing at how pathetic he looked. He finally had an ugly face to go with how ugly he was on the inside. There was nothing that would give her more pleasure than to stab his other eye out and leave him blind and helpless.

RickyJo expected him to start organizing people, get extra guards up onto the walls. Assign some more people to work the infirmary to take care of the injured. But that was not what he did. He started yelling about a traitor inside the walls of the town. RickyJo froze. He knew. About her giving Michonne that map. She didn't know how he knew, but Phillip had a way of finding things out. It also crossed her mind that he must be in a considerable amount of pain. For him to even be on his feet right now, he must be high as a kite. And he was crazy enough when he was sober.

Merle was on the other side of the clearing. His eyes caught hers. He was trying to mouth something to her. _RUN. RUN AWAY RIGHT NOW._ She was concentrating on the movements of his mouth. Which is why she didn't see the governor coming at her. He grabbed her hard by the upper part of her arm. A favorite maneuver of his. Then he jacked a gun up under her chin. That was new. But what happened next shocked her even more.

He didn't accuse her of being the traitor. He accused Merle. He was yelling almost right into her ear, making it hard for her to hear anything else. The gun was cold and hard against the tender skin under the line of her jaw. Her arm hurt where he was grabbing her, the skin pinching and twisting. She didn't try to struggle with him, knowing that would only make things worse. That was what the fucking pervert wanted. He got off on that shit.

A man with a bag over his head was dragged out into the middle of the pit. Even before the bag was off, RickyJo knew who it was. She recognized the shape of his body. The laces wrapped around the legs of his pants to keep them from catching when he was riding his bike. The dark ink of the tattoo on the inside of his right arm. They got those tattoos done together. Different designs but done on the same spot on the body.

"Daryl!," she started screaming his name before she knew her mouth was open. Then she started fighting, thrashing and swinging her elbows at the man holding onto her. She almost got loose, but Phillip grabbed her hard but the hair and pulled her body flush against his, shoving the gun back up under her chin again.

"Try that again and I will shoot Merle in the gut and make you watch him turn," he whispered into her ear. The tip of his nose brushed against the sensitive skin of her earlobe. And she could feel something hard digging into her lower back that she guessed was not a gun. She wrapped her fingers around his forearm, trying to keep him from shoving the gun into her throat so hard that it cut off her air.

The hood was ripped from Daryl's head. The governor was telling him and Merle to fight. Fight to the death. She watched the expressions that flashed across Daryl's face. He looked disoriented at first. Maybe the lights were too bright after having the black bag over his head. Then he focused his eyes on her. He didn't look surprised to see her, so she guessed he heard her screaming his name while the bag was still over his head. Their eyes locked. But only for a moment, then she saw the raw anger in his eyes as he cast his gaze on the man holding a gun under her chin.

Merle pulled his fist back and slammed it into Daryl's face, knocking him to the ground. RickyJo felt her vision start to get spotty. The gun was pressing in on her, gagging her. Making it hard to breathe. What in the hell was Merle doing? He couldn't actually fight Daryl. Not to the death. He had to be smart enough to know Phillip was going to kill them both no matter who won the fight. RickyJo felt her knees start to buckle before the pain of her hair being ripped out by the root brought her painfully back to reality.

"Get the gun out of my throat," she hissed, "I'm not worth anythin' if you choke me to fuckin' death." She felt his body shaking with laughter, but he did loosen up with how hard he was pressing the gun against her. Then he yanked her head around, pulling her hair and making her yelp in pain.

There was smoke everywhere. The sounds of gunshots rang out. At first, RickyJo thought this was just some new terrifying ploy by the governor. Act like another attack was happening and both Merle and Daryl would somehow end up dead shot by their own people. But then around her RickyJo saw it was the governor's soldiers that were falling. Haley took a direct hit to the middle of her forehead and hit the ground, her dad's baseball cap falling back off her head.

Phillip drug her backwards, not loosening his grip on her hair. Not only was he not planning to let her get away, he was also using her as a human shield. She was dragging her feet, trying to push the gun away and twist out of his grasp. Then she heard Toby's voice behind them.

"Hey Phillip!," he yelled. The man turned towards the sound of his name without thinking. Toby was standing on the lowest bench of the tiered metal seating, putting the boy almost eye to eye with the governor. He had a brick in his hand. "Fuck you!," Toby screamed. Then he slammed the brick into the side of the man's head.

RickyJo felt Phillip release his grip on her hair as he fell to the ground, his hands coming up to hold the sides of his head. She scrambled away and fell on her ass in the dirt. Either she had stumbled into the arena or the chained walkers had gotten loose, because suddenly one of them was on top of her. It's teeth were snapping and it's nails clawing at her as she got her hand under it's chin to force it's head up and back and away from her. If it was old and rotten enough she could kill it this way, but this one felt fresher. The bones were not giving way that easily. She felt the walker's clotted blood spill down on her before she saw him. Daryl. He yanked the knife back out of the walkers head and pulled it off her. She reached for his hand and he pulled her up onto her feet. Stumbling in the dirt, she fell into him, feeling his strong arm go around her back to steady her.

"Where did Toby go?," she asked. Daryl was pulling her away from the arena. Into the area that was thick with smoke. She twisted back, but she couldn't see the boy anywhere.

Behind some barrels, RickyJo saw the pretty girl that had been held captive along with Glenn. Another man was there. It looked like the cop that had cuffed Merle to the roof, but she wasn't for sure. She had only gotten one quick glance at the man back at the Atlanta camp. Merle was with them. They all started running and RickyJo ran with them. Daryl let go of her, punching Shumberg in the face and grabbing his crossbow. Then they kept going. She didn't stop to think until they were near the fence, getting ready to leave Woodbury.

"I'm not goin' without Toby and Chips," she said, pulling away from Daryl's grasp and digging in her heels.

"No choice," Merle told her, "we gotta go now." He tried to make a grab for her and she danced back out of his reach. She was getting pretty damn sick and tired of being grabbed and forced to go places she didn't want to go. People on the other side of the fence were swearing, telling them to come on. She was backing up.

"Fuck," Merle swore. He could see the look on her face. RickyJo was going to kick and scream if he tried to force her to go without the boy and the dog. So instead of fighting her, he started whistling. Hunting whistles. The ones he taught Toby. RickyJo closed her eyes, saying a silent prayer that Toby was somewhere he could hear them. She opened them just in time to see Chip's furry body flying in her direction at full force. Toby took a little longer to get to her, since he was carrying both of the bags they had packed earlier and her bow.


	17. Chapter 17

Five Minute Window

Chapter 17

They tried to keep walking, but the night was moonless and the sky was ink black. Visibility was not just bad, it was non existent. After Maggie tripped over a log and cut herself up landing hard on a sharp twig, Rick finally agreed to stop. They weren't getting anywhere anyway and everyone was stumbling around, making too much noise. Heading back to the two abandoned cars they had passed about fifteen minutes before, they climbed inside. The cars would at least offer them protection from the dead.

RickyJo eased her pack off her back and shoved it onto the floor of the backseat. Then she climbed in after it. Merle was ready to climb in behind her, but Toby and the dog beat him to it. He grumbled a few curses under his breath and ripped the passenger door open. The backseats were the kind that laid down flat in case someone was trying to fit something large into the trunk. Toby and RickyJo flopped them down and stretched out, sticking their legs back into the trunk area. Chips bumbled around, stepping on them and covering them both in slobber. He tried to jump into the front seat with Daryl and Merle, stomped all over Merle's balls and then got launched the hell back out of there.

Toby called the dog and settled him down in between him and RickyJo, stroking his ears and the soft hair on the top of his head. RickyJo rubbed at her shoulders. She had packed all the water in her bag, so Toby would have less weight to carry, and now she was regretting it. Digging through her bag, she pulled out one of the two large plastic bottles, taking a long drink before passing it around the car. Once everyone had a drink, Daryl disappeared out the drivers side door and took the remains of the bottle over to Maggie and Rick.

"Ought to shoot them now," Merle grumbled.

"We'd all be dead or worse if they hadn'ta come fer us," RickyJo reminded him, "let it go fer tonight." She was dead on her feet. The last thing she felt like dealing with was a grown ass man throwing a hissy fit. Toby was already asleep with his arms wrapped around Chips, using the dog's soft fur as a pillow. She could hear the soft even sound of his breathing.

"They came fer Darylina," he argued, "not fer us."

"Who fuckin' cares, at least we are out of there," RickyJo said. Despite the fact that she was crammed into a trunk with a smelly dog and an even smellier teenage boy, she knew she was going to sleep better than she had in a long time. They were finally free. The extra keys to the armored trucks were digging into her hip through the thin material of her pocket, reminding her that they were there. She thought about tossing them, since they were pretty much useless now, but instead she dug into her pocket and adjusted them so they weren't hurting her.

"Thanks fer packin' me a bag," Merle hissed at her. She rolled her eyes, thankful that it was dark inside the car and he couldn't see her facial expressions. He was dying to argue with her. And she was trying not to take the bait for once.

"We were packing a bag fer you when the shootin' started," she told him, trying to keep her tone of voice in check. If she knew he was going to come at her with this bullshit, she would have left with Michonne instead of risking her neck to look for him.

"Sure ya were," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. RickyJo rolled her eyes again. She was grateful when she heard the drivers side door open and shut again. Daryl was back. So Merle had someone else to fight with besides her. Her eyelids felt heavy. The night was cool, but she was warm snuggled in next to Chips. Before she knew it she was rubbing her eyes against the bright light of the Georgia morning sun.

Outside the car, RickyJo could hear Daryl and Merle arguing. Nice way to start the morning, she thought. RickyJo got out of the car, ignoring them both and calling for Chips to make sure the dog hadn't wandered too far away. Everyone had to relieve themselves and since they were the only two woman, RickyJo ended up squatting behind a bush with Maggie. The woman made no attempt to conversate with her, choosing instead to give her dirty ass looks the whole time. _Your fucking welcome for stopping the governor from raping you._ RickyJo didn't blame the woman for disliking her, but she also wasn't going to waste her breath justifying herself to a total stranger either. She had done that shit for Glenn. She owed him. Not this woman she had never met before.

They walked along in relative silence, passing around the other bottle of water RickyJo had packed in her bag. When they got back to the spot where the rest of the group was waiting for them, things went real bad real fast. Glenn started screaming at Merle, pointing a gun at him. Michonne got her sword out like she was ready to kill Merle if Glenn didn't get to him first. Rick and Daryl were trying to talk everyone down. And Merle. Was he trying to make things better? No, he was yelling out the foulest insults you ever heard. Most of them were being directed at Michonne for some reason. RickyJo didn't even know what to say. _Guess I know who broke the bridge of Merle's nose now._ She just stood there holding Chips' collar with her mouth hanging open.

"Michonne," RickyJo said, calling the other woman's name once she found her voice again. Michonne still had her sword out, but at least she turned her attention away from Merle. "Jus' leave it," RickyJo told her. She was basically pleading with the woman. If someone called her a dyke and a nigger, RickyJo would want to kick their ass. Michonne cast one more angry glance in Merle's direction and backed off. RickyJo mouthed the words _thank you_ at her. She was going to owe her one later.

RickyJo didn't interfere again until that bastard cop hit Merle in the back of the head with his gun. She felt the anger boil up inside her. Sure Merle was being a loud mouthed dick. But all he was doing was talking. That didn't give anyone the right to put their hands on him.

Rick brought the butt of his gun down on Merle's head, feeling sastified when the man dropped instantly to the ground. He turned to say something to Daryl and came nose to nose with the tattooed woman that left Woodbury with them. Merle's girlfriend or whoever she was. Rick had pretty much written her off as a tagalong. Someone not to be taken into account.

Before he even had time to react, the woman's knee came up hard between his legs. She didn't knee him in the thigh, she kneed him right in the junk. His balls felt like they were ready to explode and his dick smashed hard against his pelvic bone. He lost his grip on his gun and fell to the ground, grabbing his crotch and moaning. The woman leaned over him, a sastified smirk on her face.

"Ya ever touch 'im again and next time I'll cut yer little pecker right off," she informed him. Before she could spit on his friend, Daryl shoved RickyJo away and started cursing at her. Then the two of them started up fighting. RickyJo snagged Rick's gun after she kneed him in the balls and Daryl was trying to make her give it back. She felt she stole it fair and square. And she was pissed at Daryl for taking some bastard cop's side over her and Merle's. _Ya can't just kick someone in the balls and take their gun. The fuck I can't, he deserves worse for what he did to Merle's hand. We came back looking for y'all and you were already gone._

"Didn't look to hard did ya, we were at my apartment in Atlanta," RickyJo spat at him. She tossed the gun on the ground near Rick. Then she moved away from Daryl and knelt down on the ground near Merle to see how bad his head was hurt.

TWD

"I don't know Rick," Glenn said, "they have a kid with them." It didn't seem right turning a kid away. And while he was angry at Merle, he was still unsure about what level of involvement RickyJo had in his capture and torture. She had tricked him into telling her about the prison and then laughed about it. But no one touched him or Maggie again after that. His instinct was still to trust her.

"We could use the muscle," Daryl mentioned. He glanced over at RickyJo and Merle. They were sitting with their backs against a tree, passing a cigarette back and forth between them. That scruffy looking black kid was sitting close to them with his arm around the dog. Daryl still wasn't sure how the kid fit in, but he seemed close with RickyJo. And with Merle, which was strange. Merle usually didn't care much for kids. And he cared even less for folks of the darker skinned variety.

Rick shook his head. So Daryl nodded his and shrugged his shoulders with a grunt. If Rick wanted to go back to the prison without them, it was his funeral. Glenn was laid up. Hershel just lost a leg. They had Beth, the baby, Carol and Axel. That left Maggie and Rick as the only people that could even shoot a gun and hit what they were aiming for. The two of them were not going to last long against an entire army. He didn't know Michonne well enough to know what her skills were, besides being sneaky.

Daryl walked away, heading towards his brother. Merle gave him a big smile. That was when Daryl realized what Merle had been doing. He didn't want to go back to the prison and make nice with everyone. He had been acting like an asshole on purpose so they wouldn't let him. Daryl didn't know why he was even surprised.

They started off walking. RickyJo hesitated, lifting her hand to give a small wave to Michonne. The woman lifted her hand back. Something was going on there, Daryl thought. He had known RickyJo long enough to know her type. And that black girl fit the mold. She looked a lot like that college roommate of RickyJo's, the track star.

RickyJo stopped and eased her bag off her shoulders. Even without the extra weight of the water, her bag was heavy. And her shoulders were sore from the night before. She pulled off the plaid button down shirt she had on and stuffed it into her bag, leaving her in a tank top. The day wasn't even as hot as it was going to get yet, and already her back was soaked with sweat. Her clevage was full of it and she knew soon her bra would be soaked and the underwire would start rubbing her raw through the damp cloth.

She felt like they had been walking forever. And the further they walked, the worse everyone's attitudes became. Especially Merle's. He had a bug up his butt about something. And he seemed determined to take it out on all of them.

"What in the fuck," Merle cursed, grabbing at her arm where a giant black and blue bite shaped bruise was forming. "You get bit?"

"Not by a geek," she said. She didn't mean to tattle on the boy, but her eyes flicked towards Toby before she could stop herself. Merle stomped over and took a swing at the boy, who darted back just in time to feel the swish of air as Merle's open palm sailed past the tip of his nose.

"Stop it Merle, don't hit 'im," RickyJo hollered. Toby shoved in and threw a well placed elbow, making Merle fall backwards into RickyJo. He slammed into her and she fell on her already sore ass. Chips started barking and RickyJo hurried to shush the dog up before he brought every walker in the area down on them.

"Sorry Aunt Ricky," Toby called out, staying back out of Merle's grasp. He had not meant to make her fall down, he was just trying to shove Merle.

"Your ass is grass," Merle informed the boy. He had told that little bastard at least a thousand times not to be biting and hitting on RickyJo. Especially the biting part.

"Goin' to have to catch me first grandpa," Toby informed the man. He danced around Merle, poking at him like he was a dancing bear. Merle made a few grabs for him, but Toby was faster than him. And Toby knew the worst Merle would do to him even if he caught him was boz his ears a little. He wasn't afraid, he was having fun.

"Enough, both of you," RickyJo told them. The two of them were bad enough without egging each other on. She knew it was just their weird way of getting along, but she was not in the mood for it. Daryl offered her his hand, pulling her up to her feet. She was so tired, she wasn't sure if she would have made it up without his help. Relaxing into him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her forehead on his shoulder. Once she yelled at him about not looking for her, the anger she had towards him had gone out of her like a popped balloon. Now she was just grateful to have him back.

"Want me to take yer bag for a while?," he asked quietly, talking into her hair. RickyJo was covered in bruises. Including a nasty looking one that was forming on her throat from where that bastard had been choking her with his gun. She wasn't going to make it much further in this heat. She needed somewhere to rest.

"Are you sure?," she asked. She didn't want to burden him with carrying her stuff. Daryl nodded. Of course he was sure. He would carry anything she needed him to. She leaned in, hugging him tighter and kissing him gently on the cheek.

"Get the fuck offa him and stop acting like a whore," Merle hollered. He didn't even like seeing RickyJo in the same space with his brother, but the kiss on the cheek had been the icing on that cake full of shit. He grabbed at RickyJo, pulling her back and away from Daryl. She winced and rubbed at her arm, which was already turning colors under her tattoos from when she had struggled with the governor.

"Get it in yer head little brother," Merle yelled, "She's my fuckin' wife now." Daryl's eyes flew open. He had not been privy to that piece of information. Always eager to seize and opportunity to make his brother feel inferior, Merle narrowed his eyes, the corners of his mouth twisting up. "That's right. We done got married." He waited to make sure he was getting a reaction from Daryl. Then he added another choice piece of information. "Been puttin' the wood to her on the regular too. Gettin' the job done unlike yer pussy ass."

Toby could always be counted on to laugh at Merle's filthy comments, and this was no exception. He exploded in laughter, earning him a dirty look from RickyJo that he promptly ignored.

"What in the hell is wrong with you Merle?," RickyJo yelled. Her threshold for Merle's bullshit had been met for the day and she was not willing to take any more. What the hell was he thinking saying shit like that about her? What they did in private was just that. Private. He better start watching his fucking mouth or he was going to have to learn to jerk off left handed. Asshole.

She grabbed her bag up and handed it to Daryl. Then she whistled for Chips and took Toby firmly by the hand. Daryl could tell by the look on her face where they were going. To the prison. Merle must have guessed her intentions as well. Because he shouted out after them.

"I can't go back there!," he insisted, "Beat the shit out of the chinese kid and almost killed the black chick." He sounded so pathetic that RickyJo almost gave in. But she knew this was the best thing for all of them. They couldn't risk dying out here in the woods just to save Merle's pride. She squared her shoulders up before she turned back to look at him.

"I'm sick of your shit!," RickyJo informed him in a very angry tone. She dropped Toby's hand and headed towards Merle, poking her finger into his chest. They stared at each other for a second before she added, "So suck it up buttercup!" Merle knew what that shit meant before she stomped away from him. She was going back with or without him. And taking Toby and Daryl with her.

Daryl had his back turned, trying not to start laughing. That was some quality shit right there. RickyJo didn't give his brother the business very often, but when she did she really laid it on thick. Buttercup. Once Daryl had control over himself he turned around the face his brother like he had something to add. And he did.

"Glenn's not chinese, he's Korean."


	18. Chapter 18

Five Minute Window

Chapter 18

Not only was RickyJo not happy at all about what was about to be done to her. She was starting to get angry about it too. This was just unfair. She had just helped Merle and Daryl save these people. And now instead of being thanked, she was being locked in a cell by a man that had been running around the woods talking to people that no one else could see when she showed up. She didn't like it. Not one fucking bit. Not only would she be at the mercy of these people once they had her locked up, if the governor came back and killed them all, then she would be at his mercy and that scared her even more.

Rick was keeping a better eye on RickyJo than he had before she kneed him in the balls. But he still put his back to her when he was opening up the cell he planned to lock her in. With plans of what she meant to do still swirling in her head one thought became clear. _This is your only shot. Move. MOVE NOW._ She kicked into motion, determined to keep from being locked in a tiny metal box.

Darting forward, she grabbed the gun in Rick's holster, yanking it back. He felt the motion and whipped to the side just in time to feel her hip slam into him as the keys were ripped from his hand. He toppled off balance, falling to the floor inside the cell. His hands hit the ground with a loud slap as the air woofed out of his lungs. He didn't even register what was happening until he heard the clang of metal on metal as the cell door was slammed shut behind him.

"Merle," RickyJo shouted, tossing the keys into the air. He was already pressed against the bars, reaching out with his one good hand. As soon as she heard the sastifying jingle of the keys landing in his open palm, she ran. Across the cell block and into the cell where she had seen that little blonde girl take the baby.

Beth was standing, measuring out a bottle of formula on the top bunk. Baby Judith was lying on her back on the lower bunk, kicking her little feet in the air. Beth felt herself being shoved out of the way, water in the bottle she was holding splashing out onto her shirt and up into her face. Her mouth dropped open in shock. She didn't even have time to react before some strange woman had scooped Judith up into her arms and headed out of the cell with her.

RickyJo had Rick's gun in one hand, arm out straight and her eyes scanning the area. Merle was out of the cell he had been locked in. He was also now holding a gun. Judging by the shocked and angry look on the boy's face, she guessed he must have taken it from Carl. Toby had pulled out the gun he kept hidden in his boot. Rick had searched her and Merle, but not the boy. He was standing with his feet apart and his back to a wall, holding the gun in both hands and trying to decide who to point it at.

RickyJo heard the sounds of boots hitting the concrete floor behind her. She turned on her heel, making sure to give Glenn a view of the baby she held cradled in her arm.

"Ah Ah Ah," she told him, clicking her tounge.

"Put it down," Merle yelled at the man. Glenn hestitated a moment. He glanced at the baby and gave RickyJo a dirty look. Then he set the gun on the ground. "Kick it over to Toby," Merle ordered him. Glenn sent the gun launching over with the toe of his boot. By this time, the rest of the prison residents had gathered in the doors of their cells to see what the yelling was about.

"That's right," Merle called out, "Gather up, time to have ourselves a little pow wow. Talk about who's in charge 'round here."

Rick had managed to get onto his feet by this time, and he was more than happy to loudly express his displeasure about his current state of affairs. "You let me out of here right now," he yelled, "or you're going to be sorry." Since Merle was holding the keys, he directed his commments towards him. RickyJo turned away from Glenn, aiming her gun at Rick. He was not exactly in a position to be making threats.

"You shut up or I will shut you up," she told the former cop.

"You goin' to shoot me?," he asked her. Rick looked around for Daryl, who he figured was the only person likely to be able to help him. Daryl had his bow up, but he looked confused about where he should be pointing it. At the moment it was pointed at the empty cell next to the one that Rick was locked in. Not very promising for Rick.

"No," RickyJo told him. She walked closer to the closed door of his cell and lowered her voice. "I'm not goin' ta shoot ya. But if ya don't shut yer pig mouth I _am_ going to get the pepper spray out of my bag and hose yer fuckin' ass down with it. See how ya like that shit." She looked him dead in the eye with Merle laughing behind her. There was not doubt in Rick's mind that this woman meant what she said. In fact she sort of looked like she was hoping he wouldn't shut up so she would have an excuse to spray him. He put his hands up, open palms facing her. And he kept his mouth shut. Rick was angry, but right now he was going to have to reign it in and see how this played out.

"Democracy time y'all," Merle called out. Daryl rolled his eyes. Merle just looked like he was enjoying all this a little too much. "Time to pick us a new leader," he yelled, waving his gun around, "I vote me."

"I don't," RickyJo informed him. She heard Daryl snort and try to turn it into a cough. Merle looked at her, raising his eyebrows. "Got something to say honey?"

"Yeah. Quit horsin' around. I want everyone's guns. Right now." She turned and started motioning people to step forward. She saw the little blonde girl come out first, eager to surrender. She didn't look like she knew what to do with the gun she had anyway. RickyJo moved a little to the side when she saw Glenn's girlfriend coming, positioning herself and the baby partway in front of Merle. Maggie stared daggers at her, but she set her gun down on the table next to her sister's. Carol came over. RickyJo knew her. Trusted her. At least more than she trusted these other people.

"You keep yers," she told Carol. The woman looked surprised. But she stuffed her gun back into the holster on her hip. She stepped back and took a spot next to Daryl. For some reason standing there felt more neutral to her. The only person left now was the old man. He came forward on his crutches and tossed his gun on the table. As he did, he cast a look at the baby and then gave RickyJo a pointed glance.

"This isn't necessary," he told the woman. Something about the man looked familiar to RickyJo but she couldn't put her finger on it. Maybe he just reminded her of her grandfather. It made her feel like she wanted to explain herself to him. She pointed with her gun towards Rick.

"When we got here, he was running around outside talking to people that weren't there while y'all got attacked by the governor," RickyJo said, "Then he wanted to lock me in a cage. So I think this is necessary." Hershel nodded in understanding.

"I meant taking the baby," he clarified. Then he held his arms out for Judith. Despite the fact that she was being used as a tiny human shield, Judith looked calm and comfortable in this woman's tattooed arms. A large dog was by the woman's side, looking up at the tiny bundle and wagging it's tail. It regarded Hershel with a suspicious glance, but like RIckyJo, the dog made no move to stop him when he reached in and gently took the baby into his arms.

"Beth," he called, "come here and take Judith please." Beth rushed over, trying not to let her hands shake with fear. She took the baby from her father's arms and rushed away, disappearing into her cell. Hershel sat down at the table where the guns had been placed. Then he looked up at the woman who had just jumped Rick and locked him in a cell. At least she seemed to be taking what was going on seriously, unlike Daryl's brother who looked like he was amused with the whole situation.

"What now?," Hershel asked her. She slid onto the seat across from him and lowered her gun. When Merle moved to take the seat next to her she stopped him.

"Go let Michonne out first," she told him. The woman was still locked in a cell. Why she had been locked up to begin with RickyJo wasn't sure. But she didn't like it. Merle gave her a dirty ass look, but Hershel noticed he stomped off and did as she said. He had also noticed that when this woman lowered her gun, the rest of her group did the same, including Daryl.

"Hershel," he said, sticking his hand across the table to her. She grasped it and gave it a firm shake before she let go and put her hands back in her lap.

"This 'ere is RickyJo," Daryl said, sliding in to take the seat next to her before Merle came back. They smiled at each other.

"Is this all the guns y'all got?," RickyJo asked, directing her question at Daryl. He nodded.

"Got a few rifles hanging around, but not much ammo for them," Daryl said. RickyJo wrinkled up her nose and cursed under her breath. They were out manned. And not she knew they were heavily out gunned too. This was not going to be easy. She was going to need help. And she figured if she wanted to get it, she better start with a little backstory on the man that had attacked this place today.

"The man that came here today," she started, "He calls himself the governor."

"That shit today," Merle said, cutting her off, "that was just him ringin' the damn doorbell." RickyJo nodded.

"He won't stop, not until we're all dead. And anyone that lives, will wish they was dead," she said. She cast a glance around, her eyes lingering on the women. From the way Glenn stepped closer to his girlfriend and cast a protective arm around her slim waist, RickyJo knew he understood what she was implying. Merle stepped forward. He held onto his gun, but still managed to give RickyJo's shoulder a gentle squeeze. She tilted her head back to look up at him. Her voice got quieter. "He was the one that put the bruises on my arm. Not that army guy," she told Merle. A look of shock passed over his face, followed quickly by intense anger. But she felt good to finally be telling the truth. They could talk about the rest of it later. In private.

"Are you sure this man plans to come back," Hershel asked, sounding hopeful. This time it was Michonne that spoke up. Hershel had not even heard her voice yet. It was low and husky. What some people would call a whiskey voice.

"He's got tanks full of heads. Humans and Walkers. He's coming back," she said. Hershel nodded. He glanced towards Rick. The man was still quiet, but he was listening to all of this. Taking it in.

"We need to hit him before he hits us," RickyJo said. There were nods all around, even from Glenn, who was no longer looking at her like he wanted her dead. She fished in her pocket and pulled out a large ring of keys, handing them up to Merle for his inspection.

"Spare keys to all the amored trucks we got the other day," she told him. He nodded and handed them back.

"Good job baby," he told her. Even he hadn't seen her snag those. And they would be a big help if they were going to rob Woodbury. Which was the next logical step.

"Alright," Glenn said, stepping forward, "I'm in." RickyJo shoved his gun towards the edge of the table for him to grab. He snatched it up and stuffed in in his belt, then took the seat next to Hershel.

The next hour was filled with planning. A crude model of Woodbury was made out of old cans and rocks on the table top. There was some arguing, but mostly just about when and how the town should be attacked. The plan that was forming was one that involved stealing the trucks and ramming down some of the gates. While Woodbury fought off the dead and tried to close them up, they would raid their armory and take as many of their guns as they could. It was a good plan, but there was one problem. They really needed more guns. Or at least more ammunition. If anyone got pinned down, RickyJo didn't want them not to be able to shoot their way out.

"What we really need is more guns," she complained with a sigh. Daryl nodded his agreement. He wasn't fond of taking on an entire army with only his bow.

"You want guns?," Rick asked. All of their heads popped up, looking in his direction. RickyJo had to admit, she was so involved in what they were planning, she had forgotten he was even there.

"Why?," she asked, "you know where we can get some?" Her voice was full of attitude, but Rick figured at least he wasn't getting pepper sprayed or kneed in the dick again.

"Yeah," he told her, "I do."


	19. Chapter 19

Five Minute Window

Chapter 19

RickyJo tossed her bag into the car, leaving it sitting on the floor of the passenger side. She was riding, not driving. Keeping an eye on that sneaky cop would be easier if he was driving. Near the trunk of the car, Merle was leaning down, having a quiet word with Toby, his hand resting on the boy's shoulder. Toby was chewing at his bottom lip, nodding his head with serious look on his face. Merle straightened up and gave the boy a pat on the back.

"You didn't tell him to do anything crazy, did ya?," RickyJo asked Merle once Toby had climbed into the backseat of the car.

"Nah, jus' told him not to give you any fuckin' shit. This ain't a damn game," Merle said. Then he pulled RickyJo into his arms, holding her tight against his chest. "Be careful," he told her. She hugged him back even harder. Then she leaned back and rose up on her tiptoes so she could press her lips to his, yanking back as quickly as she had moved in before he had a chance to try and shove his tounge down her throat.

Daryl was standing nearby. She knew she was a grown woman, and could kiss who she pleased. But kissing Merle in front of his brother made her uncomfortable. Like she was doing something wrong.

"You be careful too," she said, trying to keep her tone light. After she gave Chips one last pat on the head, she walked over to Daryl, unsure of what to do or how to act. She kicked at the dirt with the toe of her boot while Daryl bit at the corner of his thumbnail. She could feel it. A weird tension between them that was so thick she felt like she could cut it with a knife. So many things that were being left unsaid. Finally she rushed forward, hugging him with an awkward fumble of arms. She held on fiercely tight, but only for a moment. Then she turned and rushed towards the waiting car like someone lit a fire under her ass. RickyJo climbed in and slammed the door shut behind her.

Rick had a quick word with Carl a few yards away from the car. But he watched the odd scene between the three people with more than casual interest. He didn't know much about RickyJo, aside from the few times Daryl had mentioned her. Daryl wasn't exactly know for being talkative when it came to his personal life. But it was clear from watching him with the woman that there was a lot going on under the surface between them. And Rick had also noticed what happened the night before. The woman had taken her dog and gone into the same cell with Daryl's brother to sleep. Daryl stalked off outside right after that and stayed out there most of the night.

Patting Carl on the back, Rick adjusted his gun and headed for the car. Merle passed by him going the opposite way. The man caught him by the arm, pulling Rick uncomfortably close to his face. His breath didn't smell as bad as Rick expected, more like cigarette smoke with a hint of mint.

"You hurt a fuckin' hair on either a their heads and I will gut yer brat like a god damn fish. Rememba that," Merle hissed at him. Rick didn't bother to engage the man verbally. He just ignored the comments and yanked his arm back. He had no intention of harming either the woman or the boy, so the threats were uneccesary. Also he had a feeling the man was baiting him. Looking to start a fight.

Climbing into the car, Rick pulled the door shut behind him and cranked on the engine. Once the car was on, RickyJo rolled her window down and pushed in the car lighter. She had a cigarette clamped between her teeth.

"Don't worry," she told him, "Merle's bark is worse than 'is bite." Rick snorted a little air out through his nose. Merle had spoken what he said to him very quietly. There was no way this woman could have heard it from inside the car. Yet she knew the man had threatened him.

"How did you know he was threatening me?," Rick asked. He put the car in gear, pulling it through the gate that Daryl had opened for them and giving the man a wave as he passed. The lighter popped out, and RickyJo leaned down to grab it. She pressed the red hot coils to the end of her cigarette, sucking in and then blowing a stream of smoke out the window.

"Know that old bastard better than he knows hisself," she said, the corners of her mouth turning up into a slight grin. Merle thought he was so sneaky, but the truth was he as predictable as the day following the night.

"How long have you two been married?," Rick asked her. She blew out another puff of smoke. The kid in the backseat leaned forward, smacking at her shoulder and holding his open hand out. To Rick's surprise, RickyJo handed the boy the lit cigarette. She lit another one for herself. Leaning back against the seat, she turned her body towards Rick, making it no secret that she was looking at him. Sizing him up. The way she was staring made him want to squirm in his seat.

"Is that what we are doin' now? Makin' small talk?," she asked him. "Tryin' to make me let my guard down? That some kinda trick ya learned in cop school?" He didn't like her questions, but at least after she asked them, she turned away and started staring out window and stopped staring at him.

"Don't like the police?," Rick asked her. She took another puff of her smoke and blew it out the window.

"No, I jus' don't like _you_." That was a lie. She hated cops. And she wished this one would shut the fuck up and leave her alone. What did he care how long she had been married. That shit was none of his damn business. And it had struck a nerve with her.

Daryl was upset with her about that. Marrying Merle. He would never say so, but his feelings were hurt. A long time ago he had wanted to marry her. Right before she went away to college. And she told him no. Told him she didn't believe in marriage. They had just been kids when all that happened. Such a long time ago that it felt like it happened in another life. But she had not forgotten. And she knew he hadn't either. She could see it in his eyes when he looked at her.

RickyJo finished her smoke in silence. She was starting to feel bad. Her grandmother didn't raise her to act like a rude ass little bitch, even to a stupid pig that left Merle cuffed to a roof. Knowing Merle, this guy probably hadn't cuffed him for no reason. _The enemy of my enemy is my friend._ She reminded herself she would rather be in this car with Rick than back at Woodbury with the governor. Rick was a little crazy, but at least he didn't seem like an enthusiatic rapist.

"About six months," she said, flicking her butt out and rolling the window part of the way back up.

"What?," Rick asked, genuinely surprised that she had spoken to him.

"Six months. It's how long I've been married," she said. She saw a smile creep across Rick's face as he watched her out of the corner of his eye. "If you want ta make small talk," she added, "do yer cop ass a favor and pick another topic." Rick nodded his head. He could do that.

RickyJo held out her pack of cigarettes out to him, obviously offering him one. Rick had not smoked in years. The last time was under the bleachers in high school. With Shane. That's how long it had been. But offering him a smoke was the first friendly gesture this woman had made. He didn't want to say no. So he slid a cigarette out of the pack and put it in his mouth, leaning down to push the lighter in. Once it popped out, he grabbed the lighter and pressed it to the end of the cigarette, sucking in harder than he intended. He started coughing. Hard. The lighter dropped onto the floor, still burning hot.

RickyJo leaned across Rick's lap, fishing the lighter out from between his feet and shoving it back into it's home. Then she snatched the cigarette from between his fingers. "Gimme that before ya choke ta death on it." The cigarette she sent flying out the window. RickyJo tried to keep her laughter under control while she poked through her bag looking for one of the bottled waters she had packed. Grasping one, she twisted the cap off and handed it to Rick. Then she fell back against the seat laughing.

Rick drank a large gulp of the water and set it beween his legs so he could wipe the water from his eyes. The woman beside him was laughing. Her laugh was high pitched and giggly. A girl's laugh. Nothing like he would have expected. She looked at least ten years younger when she smiled. Since she knew Daryl, Rick gussed they were about the same age. But now he was thinking he might have been wrong.

RickyJo got control over laughter, but she could not stop smiling. Since Toby had been suspiciously quiet during the whole ordeal, she turned around and checked the backseat. The boy was curled up on the backseat, sleeping like a baby. She wiggled her jacket off and leaned into the backseat to cover the boy up with it.

When she sat back down, she noticed Rick was having a hard time keeping his eyes on the road. He was looking at all her tattoos. She didn't really mind. People always stared at her tattoos. She had a lot of them and they were brightly colored. This must be the first time Rick had seen her without sleeves on. Rick realized he had been caught staring and he flicked his eyes quickly away from her body and back to the road.

"Didn't mean to stare," he said. They both knew he was looking, so it seemed better to just admit it. Less awkward.

"It's okay," she said, leaning over to grab the bottle of water he had pinned between his thighs and taking a sip of it before she twisted the cap back on. "If I didn't want people ta look at my tattoos, I wouldn't have got them in places you could see." Rick swallowed hard, thinking about the other places on her body where she might be tattooed before he could stop himself. He heard her giggle again, like she knew what he was thinking about.

She was joking with him. He had done it. Rick's reason for insisting he come on this trip instead of just telling them were the guns were was to get this woman alone and win her trust. She had not been far off the mark when she accused him of using cop tricks on her. He had seen enough exchanges between RickyJo and Daryl's brother to know who was running that relationship. She was.

Rick knew then that if he wanted to maintain any sort of control over this group, he had to win RickyJo over. Make her like him. Trust him. While he had not meant to do it by almost choking himself to death, he had done it just the same. He could tell by her body posture. She was a hundred times more relaxed than she had been when they first got into the car together. And now that he was thinking about it, he realized he was too.


	20. Chapter 20

Five Minute Window

Chapter 20

RickyJo felt the disappointed sigh slip from between her lips before she even realized what a big breath she had sucked in. The whole room was empty. There was not a single gun left. Not even a stray bullet. Someone had cleared this place out before long before they got here. But on a positive note, at least Rick had been telling the truth about the guns. RickyJo wanted to trust him. Mostly because Daryl trusted him. Daryl's trust was hard to earn. But until she actually saw the empty room that had clearly been full of guns at some point, she had figured there was still a chance that Rick had lied in order to trick her into leaving the prison with him so he could kill or hurt her.

"Damn," Toby said, kicking at metal shelf and looking around like he was hoping the guns would magically reappear if he stared at the empty room long enough.

"There are a few other places in town that we can check," Rick mentioned.

"Places like this?," RickyJo asked. She sounded almost hopeful. Rick shook his head.

"No, more like a few stores where the owners kept a gun under the counter," he said. She sighed again. Such a sad little noise. A few stray guns and no extra bullets were not going to be enough. Not even close to enough.

"Maybe we should just leave like Hershel said," RickyJo muttered. Rick wasn't sure if she was talking to him or just thinking out loud.

"If we decide to leave?," Toby asked, "can we go to the beach?" RickyJo caught the boy by the arm, hugging him tight and ruffling up his hair. Normally he would wriggle away from her affections, but this time he stayed put and allowed her to cuddle him. She guessed because Merle wasn't around to tease him and call him a little pussy..

"Sure," she said, "the beach sounds like a good an idea as any. Maybe we could find a big boat and sail somewhere far away..." Somewhere that the dead stayed dead. Maybe it was because Toby mentioned the beach, or maybe it was finding Daryl again. But suddenly she was back there again. On the prettiest beach she had ever seen. Mexico. The water lapping up around her heels, wetting the hem of her dress.

Toby must have had his fill of affection for the day, because he darted away, rubbing at his hair like RickyJo had tainted it with her touch. Rick scratched at his stubble, trying to hide his smile from the boy. The kid reminded him of the cat his mother had when he was a kid. After anyone but his mother pet it, the thing would have to lick and groom it's whole body to rid itself of the awful stench of being touched by him or his dad.

"For now let's go get these guns and get back," Rick said. RickyJo nodded, shaking her head in a shiver that travelled down her body. Her eyes had gone glassy and unfocused there for a moment. But now she was back, with her game face on. She motioned for Rick to head out first. He could feel some tentative trust starting to build between them, but she still wasn't going to put her back to him. Most people didn't have the instinct to even think of something like that. It made him curious about what she had done for her job before the turn.

They headed out of the police station and down the street that Rick knew would lead them further into town. Once they rounded the block to turn onto the main street, they saw the first one.

"What in the fuck?," RickyJo said. Suddenly her bow was up, arrow notched. Her body shifted, turning sideways. Making her a slightly harder target to hit. Rick also noticed she had moved to the left, placing herself part of the way in front of Toby. Protecting him.

Of course Toby was having none of that. He wanted to see. This was some grade A creepy looking shit. Wooden stakes, pointing out in circular formations. In the middle of each, there were traps that had live animals inside. Most were squirrels or rats, but one had a pitful looking cat inside.

"Was it like this last time you were here?," RickyJo asked, casting a glance at Rick. He shook his head. She pulled the string on her bow back and let an arrow sail. Into the skull of one of the walkers that had gotten itself stuck on one of the long sharp poles. Then she moved in, carefully dodging the spikes. She took her arrow back, and then grabbed for the cage that had the cat in it. The cage was chained up securely, but the door wasn't locked. So she opened it and reached in to grab the animal. There was a bell on top she hadn't noticed before, and it jingled as she jostled with the metal cage.

"Sonofabitch!," she cursed as the cat latched onto her hand with all of it's claws. To add insult to injury, the thing bit her. When she yanked her hand back, the ragged cat shot off out of the cage and down the street like a rocket. "Your fuckin' welcome," she shouted after it. RickyJo cursed some more, then stuck the side of her hand into her mouth, sucking at the deepest scratch.

"Guess it still had some fight left in it," Rick announced, earning him a very dirty look from RickyJo. Toby was laughing at the whole thing, of course. Mostly he was laughing at the extensive river of colorful curse words that had come out of RickyJo's mouth, but her getting bit by the cat had been quality entertainment as well.

"Let the possum out next," he suggested between giggles.

"Fuck you," RickyJo told the boy, a smile turning the corners of her mouth up. Rick took a few slow steps, closing the distance between him and the woman. He reached for her injured hand. She hesitated, but then let him pull it away from her mouth. Cat bites were nasty. And they had a tendency to get infected.

"You got a first aid kit?," he asked her. RickyJo nodded and swung her pack down off her back. She fumbled with the bag one handed, before shoving it towards Rick.

"Kits in the front pocket zipper pocket." He nodded and opened up the pocket she indicated. He found the kit and unzipped it, pulling out some alcohol swabs and bandaids. She plopped her butt down on the pavement and pulled out her pack of smokes, tapping one far enough out that she could snag it between her teeth. Shoving the pack back in her pocket, she fumbled around with her left hand, trying to get her lighter out of her right jeans pocket. _How does Merle live like this?_ Finally snagging it, she lit her smoke as Rick was mopping up the bites and scratches on her hand. Fucker was giving her a weird look too.

"What?," she asked him.

"The alcohol," he said, swiping the wipe harder over the deeper part of the scratch, "most people flinch." Even Shane used to flinch, and he was one of the toughest sons of bitches that Rick knew. RickyJo shrugged. She felt a slight burning, but compared to getting the outline of a tattoo done or being used as a human ashtray by her mother's crazy boyfriend, it really didn't hurt.

"Tiny always said I had a high tolerence for pain," she said in an offhand way.

"Tiny?," Rick repeated questioningly.

"The guy that did all my tattoos," she explained. Rick bobbed his head. He finished up his doctoring with a few bandaids before zipping the kit back up and putting it away.

"Show him that big iguana," Toby suggested. "Pictures of that one got put in a magazine," the boy added.

"Maybe another time," RickyJo said as she brushed off her butt with her hands. She didn't mind showing people her tattoos. But dropping her pants in the middle of the street in front of Rick wasn't really something she wanted to do at the moment. Especially since she wasn't wearing much in the way of underwear.

She noticed the pink blush that creeped up out of Rick's collar and up the man's neck at the suggestion though. The idea of seeing her body embarrassed him. Which oddly enough made her feel more comfortable. If he was blushing about seeing the meat of her thigh, he probably wasn't planning to rape her dead later today.

They all started back down the street, Rick taking the lead since he knew where they were going. They got about half a block before the shooting started. RickyJo flattened herself against the side of a building, trying to figure out where the shots were coming from. She spotted him. A man in a mask on top of the next building over.

"I think I can get up there," RickyJo said. There were fire escape ladders on most of these buildings, around the back. Without waiting for Rick to answer, she took off down the alley.

Rick kept Toby close to him, watching the rooftops for shooters. Even he was surprised when the man in the mask popped out right in front of them. Toby made a startled woof noise, squeezing the trigger of the handgun he was holding. It was almost more of a startled reflex than an active plan to kill the man. Not that he hadn't killed people before. Sometimes it was them or you. And Toby liked being alive.

The man fell backwards into the street. Rick moved quickly, grabbing his gun. There wasn't any blood, so the he figured the man must be wearing some sort of protective armour. When he leaned down and yanked the man's mask of, he almost dropped to the street himself. From shock. This was Morgan. The man that saved his life after he escaped from the hospital in Atlanta. Toby kicked at Rick with the toe of his boot.

Rick looked up to see he and Toby were being held at gunpoint but two women. They had different coloring, but it was obvious from the similarity in their facial features that they were related somehow. Maybe sisters or mother and daughter, though they looked a little close in age for that. The slightly older looking one had bright reddish orange hair. She was pretty, with big blue eyes and a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. The younger girl was just as pretty. She was darker complected, with curly black hair. But she had the same big eyes, rimmed with thick dark lashes.

"Get the fuck away from him right fucking now!," the red haired woman screamed at them. Toby kept his gun pointed at them, but Rick put his down and showed the woman his empty hands.

"Hey," he said, "its okay. Look I know him." He gestured towards Morgan.

"Then what the fuck did you shoot him for," the younger girl yelled. Rick could hear the panic and fear in her voice. The gun in her hands was shaking.

"He fuckin' shot at us first you dumb slut," Toby informed the girl.

"Hey!," Rick said, shooting the boy a dirty look, "that's enough." This was bad enough without Toby insulting people. He must have picked up his negotiation tactics from Daryl's brother.

"Back away from him," the red haired woman said again. Rick nodded at her. He picked up his gun and slowly backed off, pulling Toby along with him. The girl held her gun on them while the woman rushed over and checked on Morgan. She loosened his vest, feeling underneath to make sure the bullet had not gone through. She threw a hateful glance at Rick and Toby.

"Mom?" The voice came from the doorway of the building where Morgan had been shooting at them from. Rick glanced over. There were two more children in the doorway. One he recognized as Morgan's son Duane. The other was unfamiliar. Another girl, younger than the one holding the gun on him, but with the same skin tone and curly dark hair. RickyJo was standing between them, holding the girl by the hand.

Rick sucked in his breath, scared at first that she was using these children as hostages, like she had done with Judith back at the prison. But the girl was clinging to RickyJo like she knew her. And they both had tears in their eyes.

"Jess...," RickyJo said, choking on the lump in her throat. The woman with the red hair dropped the gun in her hands, letting it clatter to the ground. But Rick finally understood what was going on when the girl that had been pointing her gun at him shoved it into the back of her pants and ran for the woman.

"Aunt Ricky," she cried, throwing herself into the woman's arms. RickyJo grabbed at the girl, holding her tight. She couldn't see through the tears. Duane ran over to check on his dad. The red haired woman assured him that his dad was going to be fine. Then she stood up, her gun still forgotten somewhere near her feet. The two women drifted towards each other. When she finally had her cousin in her arms, RickyJo really let go. She was crying harder than she had cried in as long as she could remember. The kind of crying where you had to go into the bathroom and mop up the snot when you got done.

The two woman finally got control over themselves, as Morgan was starting to wake up. The red haired woman returned to his side, stroking his face tenderly before she helped him to sit up. Rick had to admit, Morgan had done pretty well for himself since the last time Rick had seen him. Not only was the woman with him pretty, she appeared to care for him a great deal. And unlike most of the people running around with guns these days, from the way she had been holding hers, Rick could tell this woman knew how to use it.

The woman tilted her head up towards RickyJo. "This is Morgan," she said, "Morgan, this is my cousin RickyJo." RickyJo squatted down and held her hand out for Morgan to grasp. The way this man had been looking at Jessica, so loving and concerned. She had never seen a man look at her cousin quite like that before. RickyJo immediately decided she liked this guy. And that was before he clasped her hand and gave her a warm smile.

"It's nice to finally meet you."


	21. Chapter 21

Five Minute Window

Chapter Twenty-one

Merle was searching under another mattress when he heard the noise outside. RickyJo was gone for the day, so he decided he was going to have himself a little party. Get high. He was in a prison. There had to be drugs hidden somewhere in this place. At least a damn joint. So far he had come up empty.

The mattress flopped down with a small cloud of dust when he let go of it. He headed back down the metal steps. When she heard the clang of his boots, Andrea started up again, yelling and hollering at him. Demanding to be let out of the cell he had locked her up in. He held up his middle finger at the woman as he walked by but didn't waste his breath on her. Dumb bitch.

"You let me out of here right now you bastard!," she yelled. Her voice was starting to sound hoarse, so Merle guessed he wouldn't have to listen to her much longer. The shit was for her own good anyway. Sort of. They also couldn't risk her running back and passing more information on to the governor. She had shown up earlier to set up some kind of negotiation meeting. As if anyone here was going to line up to be axe murdered by a madman.

The old man was standing around outside with his little blonde daughter and the baby. Guess they got tired of listening to Andrea's bitching too, Merle thought. Hershel gave him a pointed glance. He didn't like the fact that Andrea was being held against her will, but Merle guessed the old farmer was going to wait for the good sheriff to get back before he made a stink about it.

Merle rounded the corner of the building. He saw the car RickyJo had left in right away, but there was another truck parked behind it. There was a lot a squealing going on. Loud and exctied voices. For a moment, Merle was sure he must be far less sober than he felt. There was no way he could be seeing what he was seeing right now. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. That bright copper head of wild curls. He would know them anywhere. Never seen another woman with hair like that. Jessica.

Daryl was hugging both of RickyJo's nieces against his chest while RickyJo and Jessica bounced around him like two rabbits on crack. Toby was standing with another black kid that looked about the same age as him and a man that Merle guessed was the other boy's father. Both boys were laughing at the women's display. Some of the other prison residents had gathered around the edges of the group, interested to see who the new people were.

Toby spotted Merle first and came tearing ass in his direction. The kid started talking at him about a mile a minute. _Aunt Ricky found her cousin and her neices and some other people and we got a ton of guns and bullets and I got a new gun and a knife and Morgan gave me a peanut butter granola bar and I got to ride in the back of the truck and and and and..._ Sometimes Merle felt like they ought to turn Toby loose on the walkers and let him talk to them to death. When that kid got excited he sounded like a crazed parrot. Even if he did nothing but talk it was enough to drive a person half crazy. And deaf.

Once they were done slobbering all over Daryl, the girls came rushing over to hug on Merle. He swept little Dez up first and felt her skinny arms go around his neck. Her cheeks still had some of that baby roundness to them and she hugged him so tight her cheek smooshed against the side of his face. Merle thought the same thing he always thought about Desire. _Should have been my damn kid if her momma wasn't such a slut._ The old anger didn't come with it. Not this time anyway. He was too happy to see everyone.

Cassie had been a little girl the last time Merle laid eyes on her. She looked at least five years older, and he counted the time in his mind. It had not been more than a year. Maybe a year and a half. She looked like a grown ass woman. He set Dez down so he could hug her sister. Cassie was a little more reserved, but she still hugged him tight and laid her head on his chest. Then Dez was climbing all over him, grabbing at the metal sleeve on his arm and trying to get him to take it off so she could look at it. He shook her off and headed across the yard with both girls tagging along behind him.

Jessica didn't come to him, she waited by the car with her arm around Daryl. Making Merle come to her. That was her way. She wasn't fooling anyone though, she had a huge grin on her face and as soon as Merle got close she was on him. She hugged him, but gave him her cheek when he went to lay a kiss on her. When he let go, Merle noticed her eyes flick towards the man that Toby had been standing with before.

Seeing that the reunion was about to get awkward, RickyJo headed over towards Morgan. She introduced him around to everyone quickly. If Jessica wanted to tell Merle about who the man was to her, she needed to do it later, preferably when the man wasn't in punching range. RickyJo flung the trunk of the car open to show off the guns. Then she yanked the tarp off the even larger arsenal in the back of the truck.

"Guns for everyone!," she hollered with her arms out, doing her best Oprah impression. Her antics had the desired effect and soon everyone was crowding in, poking through the piles to look for something they might want. She had already picked out the things she was keeping for herself. And a gun each for Daryl and Merle. But really, there was so much that there was no reason to worry. Everyone could get what they wanted with plenty left over.

The reunion was going well. Daryl was manfully tolerating being hugged more times in fifteen minutes than he had been in the entire last year. Jessica's daughters had gathered around Beth and the little baby she was holding to get a look at the tiny bundle. Cassie was taking a turn holding Judith while her sister complained loudly about what a baby hog she was. Hershel was keeping an eye on the girls, trying not to laugh to hard at them. Duane and Toby were yabbering at Carl, while Rick and RickyJo took turns yelling at them to stay out of the guns and not to be wasting bullets and making noise shooting them off. Daryl was relieved to see that the two of them getting along better after the run they went on together. Rick was good people. RickyJo would see that if she gave him a chance.

Everything seemed to be going well. And then Jessica noticed the slim gold band Merle was wearing on the ring finger of his only good hand.

They were standing side by side, reaching over the side of the bed of the truck to haul out one of the large containers of food they had brought from Morgan and Jessica's place. She let her side of the box drop back down into the truck. The wheels in her mind were spinning. RickyJo had a gold chain around her neck with a ring on it. Jessica had only noticed that because a) the ring was tacky, huge and hideous and b) RickyJo almost never wore jewery unless she was dressed up to go to some kind of work function. Jessica had put the gaudy ring out of her mind, guessing that maybe it had belonged to someone her cousin cared about that had been killed or had some other significance to the woman. The thought that it might be a wedding ring never crossed her mind. They had been talking about more important subjects and Jessica had not gotten around to asking her about it. But when she saw the ring on Merle's hand, she started coming to some rather upsetting conclusions.

"What the hell is that?," Jessica asked, dropping the box and grabbing at his hand to get a better look at the piece of jewelery he had on. She rubbed her thumb across the gold band once before he yanked his hand away from her. None of her fucking nosy ass business. That's what that was. Daryl was already sulking around and giving RickyJo his little sad puppy face looks. The last thing Merle needed was Jessica laying into her about being married to him.

"Nothin'," Merle informed the woman. He tried to resume the task at hand of getting this crap out of the truck and taking it inside before they lost the light. But Jessica was having none of it.

"Looks like a wedding ring," she announced, her words coming out sounding more like an accusation. "Who the fuck did you get married to?," she asked. Her voice was getting louder, drawing more attention from the people around them. Merle gripped her upper arm and leaned in close, so his nose was almost touching hers.

"Been ridin' that coons dick all winter," Merle hissed at her under his breath," none of your whore business what I fuckin' do." Jessica yanked her arm away and narrowed her eyes at him, the color rising in her cheeks. There was one thing that Jessica could not stand. And that was racial slurs. She did have two biracial daughters for fucks sake. And she had been putting up with listening to that crap from her Poppa her whole life. She didn't have to put up with it now. But she also knew Merle well enough to know exactly what he was doing. Starting a fight and trying to distract her from the subject at hand.

"Who are you married to?," she asked. Her hands were clenched up into fists. Merle was just standing there staring at her. But Daryl was on the other side of the truck watching them. And he was more than happy to offer up the answer to her question.

"RickyJo," he told Jessica, "the two of them got married while they were livin' with that psycho in woodbury." Jessica didn't feel the need to question her cousin. If she married Merle, she must have had a good reason for it. Maybe to keep the other men in the place she was staying from hassling her. Jessica was more concerned with what the marriage implied.

"You fucked my cousin," she hollered, pointing her finger into Merle's chest. He was shuffling his feet, backing away from Jessica, who was staring to get that angry devil cat look on her face. He had seen that look before. Many times. Jessica meant business. As her haircolor might imply, she had a firey temper. Its what made her so good in bed.

Merle knew there was a good chance Jessica might take a swing at him. He was looking around for RickyJo, hoping she would step in and get her crazy ass fucking cousin away from him before this got any worse. Merle spotted her. But she did not look like she was rushing to his aid. She was on the other side of the truck, arguing with Daryl. They weren't yelling. That wasn't their way. They were toe to toe gesturing with their hands and hissing in each other's faces.

"She was upset and I asked you to stay at that campsite to take care of her and YOU FUCKED HER! Didn't you!" Jessica shoved her finger harder into his chest. "You're a disgustin' ass pig! I can't fuckin' believe you Merle!" She knew he was a pig. But she didn't think he would stoop that fucking low. RickyJo had been really messed up in her head at that time. But besides that, she was Daryl's girlfriend. Or whatever they were calling each other. Daryl cared about her. Merle had to know that if he fucked her, it would hurt his brother. What a selfish bastard.

Morgan was standing nearby, watching this rather disturbing scene unfold. He wasn't sure what to do. These were Jessica's people, not his. And he was rather shocked. His mouth was hanging open. He had never seen Jessica act like this before. She was always gentle and patient with her girls and his son. With him she was respectful and kind. Morgan had never seen her scream at anyone like this. Her face was beet red and she was poking her finger into this man's chest. But so far, the man was not doing anything back. So Morgan held his ground. Then the man raised his hand up and smacked Jessica's hand away from him. Hard. Morgan heard the stinging slap.

Before he even meant to move, Morgan darted forward. He caught Jessica by the waist and pulled her back so he could get in front of her. In between her and the man that she was fighting with.

"Do not ever touch her," Morgan warned the man. Merle raised his eyebrows. Who in the hell did this guy think he was. He barely even touched Jessica in the first place, he was just trying to get that crazy bitch away from him. If he wanted her on the damn ground, that's where she would be.

"Who the fuck are you?," Merle asked Morgan. Then he shoved him hard in the middle of the chest with his good hand, sending him backwards where he slammed into Jessica and knocked her back onto the ground. She landed on her big ass so Merle knew she wasn't hurt. Plenty of padding there to break the fall. Merle was expecting this dumbass to back off after that. Most men would. But instead the crazy bastard came barrelling at him like a freight train.

Morgan slammed into the other man, their bodies colliding before they both went flying into the dirt. Some punches were being thrown but mostly the two men were just rolling around yelling at each other. _Don't you touch my girlfriend! She's my fuckin' family I will touch her however I want!_ RickyJo and Daryl ceased their arguement. They grabbed Jessica under the arms and pulled her to her feet. She was rubbing her sore ass and shaking her head at Merle and Morgan. RickyJo stomped over and smacked her hands at them.

"Stop it now! Both of you, before someone gets hurt!," she hollered. Not only did the men ignore her, they rolled into her legs and made her fall shrieking down into the grass.

Rick and the rest of the prison group were watching the show. He noticed the kids were watching with mixed expressions on their faces. The girls looked scared and upset. Carl and Duane looked confused. Toby looked like he was having the time of his life, but at least he had a grip on RickyJo's dog's collar, keeping it from charging at the men and making things worse. Deciding the fight had gone far enough, Rick stepped forward and elbowed Daryl.

"I'll grab Morgan, you get your brother," he said. Daryl nodded his head and they both headed over. Merle was on top of the other man. Both men were on top of RickyJo's legs and she was smacking at them both, screaming for them to get offa her. He grabbed his brother, ducking his head to keep from being slammed by the stupid thing he wore on his arm. Pulling him back was really an effort, since the man had his one good hand locked into Morgan's shirt. Glenn was next to him suddenly, helping him yank his brother back. Rick grabbed Morgan and dragged him away, leaving most of his shirt behind hanging from Merle's clenched fist.

Once they were separated, Morgan calmed down quickly. Merle, on the other hand, was thrashing around like a damn mackerel, trying to punch anyone within range. RickyJo got to her feet and headed his way, limping slightly and favoring one ankle.

"Enough," she said, yelling at first. She was mad about getting her ankle rolled on. Her legs had crossed and one ankle ground into the other one at a weird angle, twisting it painfully. She took a deep breath and lowered her voice. "Hey," she said, waiting until she knew she had Merle's attention, "enough, okay. Stop." Once she had her hand on him, Daryl felt his brother's body relax. He stopped fighting them. Daryl let go and stepped back, motioning for Glenn to do the same. Daryl wasn't stupid though, he stayed close in case Merle decided to have another go at Morgan.

"Come on, let's go inside and get a drink of water," RickyJo suggested. Daryl was curious to see how this was going to play out. Merle hated, just absolutely hated being coddled. But instead of fighting, he let RickyJo lead him inside the building and away from the fight. He even put his arm around her and hugged her to his side as they walked. She waited until they were out of earshot before she said anything else to him.

"That was a waste of energy," she mentioned, keeping her tone even, "we're all on the same side. Do ya well to remember that."

"Goin' to fuckin' lecture me now?," Merle asked her. She shook her head. That was all she had to say. And she had just been stating the facts, not lecturing him. The governer was the enemy, not some guy that was fucking Jessica.

It was cooler inside the prison and Merle could feel the last bits of rage and anger draining out of him. That was when he noticed that RickyJo was leaning on him, putting her weight on his shoulders and off her right foot. He walked her over to the closest table and sat her down in a chair. Kneeling in front of her, he pulled her foot up into his lap so he could take a look and see what was wrong with it. RickyJo looked down at him, trying not to let him make her smile.

"That was one hell of a reunion," he quipped. Their eyes caught and they stared at each other a moment, his hand on her ankle turning into more of a gentle caress than an examination. Her ankle wasn't swelling up, so Merle knew she would probably be fine to walk on it. When she looked up, RickyJo saw something strange that she didn't understand. There was a holding cell in the front room, away from the other cells in the block where they all slept. A familiar woman was locked up inside. Andrea. And she didn't look very happy about her predicament either.


	22. Chapter 22

Five Minute Window

Chapter 22

Daryl woke up feeling terrrible. His head was pounding and his mouth felt like it was full of sand. He rolled onto his side and felt something lumpy in between his face and his pillow. Grasping the item, he blinked his eyes to try and focus them. In his hand was a pair of women's underpants. Gross. He tossed them away like they were covered in the plague.

Seeing that he was lying on a pair of women's panties, Daryl started trying to remember what in the hell happened the night before. He had been hungover enough times to know that he had been drinking. Heavily. Looking down, he could see that he was at least still fully dressed. Even his boots were still on. And he was in bed alone. Another good sign. Daryl moaned and scrubbed his face with his hand. Thinking hurt his brain.

He was on the bottom bunk, in what he knew was his cell, since he saw the few things he owned piled up in the corner. An arm was dangling down from the bunk above him. Since it ended in a disgusting looking stump where a hand should be, it was an easy guess who was sleeping up there. On the other side of the cell, Jessica and Morgan were cuddled up together on the lower bunk. Their lower bodies were covered with a blanket, but Daryl could see enough of them to know that they were both naked. At least that gave him a good idea who the panties belonged to.

Daryl remembered whiskey. Lots of it. Merle had been acting like Morgan was enemy number two. Until the man busted out a full bottle of liquor and several bottles of wine that he and Jessica had been hanging onto for a special occasion. Then suddenly Morgan was his brother's new best friend. Everyone had commenced with the celebrating and got themselves real drunk real fast. It wasn't a hard task to accomplish on their half empty stomachs. The last thing Daryl remembered clearly was watching RickyJo and Michonne arm wrestle each other while everyone else cheered them on.

Daryl moved slowly, swinging his legs off the bunk. When he sat up, he buried his head in his hands, hoping the horrible pounding in his head would subside. He forced himself to his feet, looking around the cell and hoping a bottle of water would magically appear. The smell of coffee was drifting in from somewhere in the prison. _Coffee is better than water._ Just the smell of it made his headache feel better. He shuffled out of his cell and down the metal steps, trying not to stomp and clang his boots.

Coffee was his primary mission, but his bladder said different. Daryl headed outside first. Leaning his head into his arm, he pissed down the side of the building, not caring much at the moment whether or not anyone was around to see him or his morning erection. He was zipping up his pants when he walked back inside. Following his nose, Daryl headed towards the smell of coffee. There was half a pot of the good stuff left, and even some sugar and powdered creamer nearby. _God bless Jessica and all the supplies she brought._ Daryl poured himself a nice big cup, stirring in plenty of sugar and a just a little bit of creamer.

Hershel was sitting at one of the tables, so Daryl joined him. He drank down about half the contents of his mug in a few big gulps before giving the other man a nod. Hershel gave him a look that made Daryl wonder again what sort of drunken activities had gone on the night before. Now he wasn't sure he even wanted to know. Daryl patted his pockets, looking for cigarettes and coming up empty. About ten seconds later he was pelted in the head by a half a pack of camels.

"Good mornin' sunshine," RickyJo called out, her voice ringing through the room and making Daryl want to cover his ears with both hands. She was coming in from outside, with Michonne close behind her. RickyJo's big dog came padding in behind them and laid down on the cold floor, looking as tired as Daryl felt. Once he had a smoke clamped between his teeth, RickyJo leaned down and lit it for him.

"Good mornin' Hershel," she said the the man, ruffling her hands through the old man's hair as she walked past him towards the coffee pot. Daryl noticed Hershel turned about ten different shades of red at her touch. A hazy memory drifted back to him from the night before. At some point Hershel had tried to break up the little party they were having and send everyone to bed. It seemed he thought things were getting a little out of control. RickyJo had leaped up. _The party ain't outta control until people start losing their clothes._ She had prompty lifted up her shirt and showed the old man her assests before he had a chance to avert his christian eyes. _NOW ITS OUT OF CONTROL!_ For good measure she flashed everyone else as well before she collapsed into a giggly heap on the floor.

"How are ya not hung over?," Daryl grumbled in her general direction. RickyJo only responded with a big smile as she refilled her travel mug with hot coffee.

"They're on their second pot of coffee," Hershel informed him, nodding in the direction of the two women. Daryl chuckled into his mug, instantly regretting it since the laughter made his head throb. He took another big gulp of coffee and a long drag off his smoke, blowing it out into the air above his head.

RickyJo took the seat next to him, straddling the bench as she reached to reclaim her pack of cigarettes. She lit one up, ignoring the disgusted look Michonne was giving her. Michonne had never seen anyone follow up a half hour of power yoga with a smoke, but she supposed there was a first time for everything. Since only the kids were outside keeping watch, she took her coffee to go and headed back out into the morning light.

"It's a beautiful day out," RickyJo informed Daryl in a little sing song voice. The voice she only used when she wanted something from him.

"What do you want?," Daryl asked her. Hershel laughed before he could stop himself and tried to turn it into a cough. The exchanges between this woman and the younger of the two Dixon brothers were amusing. Hershel had never seen Daryl interact with someone that really knew him before. It was completely different from his interactions with the rest of the group. First of all, RickyJo was sitting so close to Daryl that they were touching. And Daryl didn't seem to even care. His shoulders were relaxed. It was odd to see anyone in the man's personal space. Only Carol ever really got close to him, and that was only once on a great while.

"Want to go hunting wit' me?," she asked, reaching over to wipe a stray strand of hair out of Daryl's eyes. Daryl squinted his eyes at her like she was the craziest person on earth. Hunting? The only plan he had for the day was nursing his hangover. RickyJo scooted closer until her head was resting on his shoulder. Then she started making whiny little puppy noises. This brought Chips up from where he was lying, to see what the noise was. RickyJo leaned away from Daryl and gave the dog and affectionate scratch behind the ears.

Daryl's coffee was starting to kick in, and he was feeling much better than he had a few moments before. He knew RickyJo was going to harass him until he went hunting with her no matter how he felt. But the idea was starting to sound more appealing.

"What you want to go huntin' for?," Daryl asked. Taking this as his agreement that he was going, RickyJo grabbed him by the chin and planted a kiss on the side of his face. He elbowed her off and wiped at his face like he was afraid she left a lipstick stain. Hershel laughed into his cup again.

"Deer if we're lucky," RickyJo said. She had helped unload the supplies the day before. And then she and Carol had looked over everything and made some calculations. With the amount of people they had living in the prison now, and the supplies that Jessica and Morgan had thrown in, they had about two months worth of food. That seemed like a lot, but it really wasn't much. If they could supply themselves with some fresh meat, it would help the situation out a lot.

Daryl chugged the rest of his coffee down and RickyJo topped off her travel mug so they could sip off it while they walked. She left Toby in charge of Chips and Carl opened the gate to let them out. As Daryl walked thorough, stabbing a walker that was hanging around outside, he remembered something.

"Where did Andrea go?," he asked. Last he remembered, the woman had been locked up in a holding cell. And she had not been in there when he passed by the spot on his way outside.

"Michonne let her go this morning," RickyJo said. "We told her to set up the meeting with the governor in two days," she added. Daryl raised his eyebrows at her. Merle was not going to like that shit. Daryl was under the impression that his brother was keeping the woman as some kind of hostage or something. Plus Merle didn't like things being done without his stamp of approval. If RickyJo thought he was taking the blame for this shit, she had another think coming.

"Someone goin' ta meet with that psycho?," Daryl asked.

"Nah," RickyJo said. She stopped and used her bow to take out a walker that was getting a little too close for comfort. "I think the plan is goin' ta be to bust in and rob Woodbury while he's waiting for us at the meetin' spot." Daryl shrugged. That sounded like a good a plan as any. He figured they could hammer the details out later once everyone was concious. RickyJo braced her boot against the walker's head and took her arrow back.

"Come on," Daryl said, nodding his head to the right of them, "theres a good tree stand over thisaway, been leavin' food scraps out to try and attract some deer." RickyJo smiled like a cheshire cat, but she kept her comments to herself. Daryl, the self proclaimed greatest tracker in the state, was baiting deer. Baiting them. _He better hope Merle never finds out 'bout this or he ain't never gone hear the end of it._ RickyJo actually thought it was a smart idea, but she was surprised that Daryl had lowered himself to such an activity.

Daryl and RickyJo walked for what she guessed was about a mile, passing the travel mug of coffee back and forth. They didn't talk much, but the silence was companionable. She was happy Daryl seemed to have gotten over his anger with her about the whole Merle situation. He never got around to asking her why she married his brother and she was grateful for that. Mostly because she wasn't sure she had an answer for him. _You weren't there._ Not one that would make the feelings between them any less awkward anyway. She wasn't going to get off that easy with Jessica, but that was a problem for another day.


	23. Chapter 23

Five Minute Window

Chapter 23

"Over there," Daryl said, pointing towards the tree he knew had a large wooden tree stand in it. The structure looked like it might have been a treehouse someone wasn't done with yet instead of an actual tree stand, but either way it served the same purpose. There was a small family group of deer gathered around underneath it. At the sound of Daryl's voice they all scattered before either he or RickyJo had time to string and arrow. She cursed quietly under her breath.

"They'll be back," Daryl announced. RickyJo bumped her hip into him gently. There was plenty of half rotten apples lying around. So she knew the deer would be back as long as Daryl could keep his blabber mouth shut. It wasn't like him to talk loud like that while they were hunting. In fact, he was usually the one getting mad at Merle for talking too loud. That fucker had a voice that carried.

The ladder to get up into the tree stand was a series of two by four sections that were nailed to the trunk of the tree. Daryl swung his crossbow over his shoulder and started climbing up. There was a trapdoor he had to climb through, and the size of it was what made him think this structure was built for children instead of adults. He barely fit through. He had to shove his crossbow up first, and then turn his shoulders at a funny angle and wiggle to make them fit.

RickyJo was standing on the ground near the base of the tree. She was watching Daryl climb up. The muscles in his arms were flexing and buldging and she tried to remember if his arms had been that ripped back at the quarry. His shirt was lifting up and she could see a little sliver of the bare skin on his back. She didn't mean to stare, but his ass was practically in her face. It was round in just the right spots and she knew from the one time she had dug her nails into it that it was as firm as it looked.

Feeling the heat rise up in her cheeks, she quickly averted her eyes and looked down at her boots. _Don't be a pervert._ She had seen Daryl plenty of times before, wearing a lot less than he was wearing now. She didn't know where all these feelings had come from all of the sudden. _I'm just happy to see him again after all that time._ RickyJo shifted her body around, shuffling her feet and trying to ignore the pounding heat between her legs.

She tried to think about how gross boys were, but it wasn't working. The feelings had always been there inside her, but they had been tempered with a fair amount of fear and the tense feeling she would get when she thought about a man on top of her. She had never really been afraid of Daryl, but she had been afraid that what he would want to do to her would hurt. While they had been in Woodbury, she had slept with Merle enough times to know that sex with a man didn't hurt. Quite the opposite, it felt good. Really good. Maybe even better than having sex with a woman. _Stop thinkin' about shit like that._ She raised a hand up and pressed her palm to her face. Her cheeks felt like they were on fire and she guessed her ears were hot too. _Now yer damn face is beet red and Daryl is going to ask you what the hell is the matter and what are you going to tell him, that you got excited staring at his ass? He doesn't want Merle's sloppy seconds... and even if he does you are married for fuck's sake._ RickyJo pulled her hair out of the low ponytail she had it wrapped in and flung it forward over her shoulders to try and cover her red face and her nipples, which were now rock hard inside her bra.

Daryl's boots disappeared through the hole along with the rest of him, and then his face appeared. He motioned with his hand, gesturing for RickyJo to climb up behind him. She handed her bow up first, and then her back pack. Daryl noticed her face was flushed, the color still rising in her cheeks. From his vantage point, he could see down the front of her tank top. Even the tops of her breasts looked pink. And she was acting funny, like she didn't want to look him in the eye all of the sudden.

He wondered if something had happened between them the night before, but he was sure he would remember something like that. Besides, she had been acting perfectly normal back at the prison and the whole walk out here. _Women. Fuckin' crazy. Every last one a them. And RickyJo is the queen bee of the loony woman tree, who knows what's goin' on with her. Don't know, don't care. She's Merle's fuckin' problem now._ Daryl tried to pretend like he was glad about that last part, but it didn't stop him from pushing his bangs back out of his eyes to give him a better view.

RickyJo reached up, gripping the highest rung she could reach. She caught the tip of her boot on a lower board and started pulling herself up. Daryl moved back to give her some room to climb up. Her head came popping up through the small door. Her shoulders followed, and then suddenly she was gone. A piercing scream echoed through the quiet morning sounds of the woods around them.

At first, Daryl thought that she lost her footing and fell. But then he saw her gripping onto the wood at the edge of the opening with her fingers. He scrambled towards her, grabbing her wrists to keep her from falling. Her body was thrashing wildly, her shoulders twisting as she tried to get away from the walker that had fixed it's iron grip on one of her legs. Daryl let go of her and grabbed his bow. He already knew he couldn't fire through the tiny trapdoor opening. So he leaned over the edge of the platform. The top of his body was almost upside down as he aimed his bow, trying to get a clear shot. There was no way he could shoot the walker without risking shooting RickyJo. The thing was locked onto her and she was kicking and swinging around. Daryl thought about jumping down, but it was a long way to jump.

"LIFT YOUR RIGHT LEG AND KICK STRAIGHT DOWN HARD!," he hollered. RickyJo listened. He saw her knee come up and then her foot crashed down into the walker's head. Once. Twice. She knocked it to the ground. Daryl rolled back towards her. He grabbed her by the arms and pulled her up into the treehouse with him. So much adrenaline was running through him he might as well have been lifting a bag of feathers.

RickyJo collapsed on the wooden platform, trying to catch her breath. Daryl was grabbing her legs, lifting them and checking her to make sure she wasn't bitten. Her boots went almost to the knee, but walkers bite harder than a normal person would be able to. They didn't care if their teeth or jaws broke.

"Fuckin' shit," he swore. There was a deep bite mark in the leather that went through. Daryl yanked the zipper of her boot down and tugged the boot off. RickyJo pointed her foot to keep it from being ripped off along with her boot. He tried to roll her jeans up, but they were the kind that fit tight at the ankle so they wouldn't bunch up inside her boots. He ripped at the seam but it wouldn't give. Daryl swore, yanking harder at the seam of her pants, which still would not rip open. _She's not bit please don't let her be bit._ He pulled her other boot off and then reached forward, fumbling with the zipper of her pants.

To keep her clothes from literally being ripped of off her, RickyJo leaned back and lifted her hips, letting Daryl yank them down. Her socks pulled off and turned inside out, tangling up inside the legs of her pants. Daryl was grabbing her left leg, holding it up and twisting it around at an uncomfortable angle, looking at the spot on her leg where the gash in the boot had been.

"It didn't break the skin," he said, gasping for air. He had not realized he was holding his breath. He let go of her leg and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her up into a sitting position so he could crush her against his chest. "It's just a bruise. It didn't break the skin. Thank fuckin' god. It didn't break the skin." RickyJo could feel his arms around her, tighter than he had ever held her before. It seemed like it should be uncomfortable, being squeezed so hard by someone so strong, but it felt good. She could feel the dampness through the hair on the side of her head that was turned towards Daryl from the tears he didn't even know he was crying.

Daryl's grip relaxed slightly and then he was stroking one hand down over her hair. She figured this was about to get awkward. Daryl wasn't prone to emotional outbursts and after he had one, he usually got all ashamed with himself. But that didn't happen this time. He just kept holding onto her, sitting back and turning his legs to one side so he could pull her into his lap. RickyJo felt one of his hands slide up under her chin, tilting her head back. She still thought he was checking her for injuries when his lips came crashing down on hers.

This was not the timid questioning kisses she had recieved from him in the past. The kind where his hands were barely touching her and he was ready to back off as soon as he felt her body go stiff. This was a whole different animal. The quick metalic gnash of his teeth scraping against hers as he pressed in with too much pressure. The way his fingers were digging into the soft skin on her back, squeezing the places where she was marked with scars. His raw need for her. There were so many unspoken feelings behind it all. More than she ever knew he had.

Before she had time to think about what she was doing, RickyJo was parting her lips to accept his probing tounge. Her hand slid up his back and twined into the hair at the back of his neck, pulling him closer instead of pushing him away. He didn't break the contact of his mouth on hers, but once they were kissing she felt his hands leave her body. He was shoving his vest off, tossing it on the rough wooden planks behind her along with his shirt so he had something to lay her down on.

She felt the tilt of their bodies and then the hard floor of the platform touching her back. Daryl was hovering above her, kissing a hot trail down the side of her neck and into her cleavage. His hands raked up her body, the calloused tips of his fingers griping the low neckline of the tank top she was wearing, pulling it down along with the cups of her bra. The sound of ripping fabric was overwhelmed by the feel of his mouth on the hard bud of her nipple. He flicked his tounge over it first, then sucked the sensitive pebble into his mouth, shoving the ring that was hanging between her breasts on its long gold chain away so he didn't have to look at it.

He was squeezing at her other breast, the one that wasn't in his mouth, rolling her nipple back and forth between his fingers. Pinching hard enough that it was setting all her nerve endings on fire. Her back arched up and her breath started coming out in ragged gasps and little noises that were so high pitched they were almost silent. Daryl pulled his head back, releasing the suction on her breast. Her cheeks were red and she was arching her back, pressing herself against the hard buldge in his pants. She was getting off. _Holy fuck that's hot._ He was ready to come in his pants like a twelve year old just watching her.

RickyJo had not felt her orgasm coming on before it happened. Suddenly the waves of pleasure were just washing over her one after the other. She was in that special zone, eager for anything her partner wanted to do to her. Usually she had to be a little drunk to feel that way. And she supposed maybe she was drunk. Drunk on the look in Daryl's eyes, blue as the clear sky above his head.

His hands were between them, unzipping his own pants and then pulling at her panties. She heard the thin lace fabric rip and then the cool rush of air that followed as the damp fabric was peeled away from her opening. He slid a thick finger inside her first, checking to see if she was ready. A low growl ripped through his clenched teeth at the feel of her slick opening tightening around him. His finger was quickly withdrawn. And then she felt the weight of his body come down on her as he buried himself inside her. She gasped as she felt her insides doing that delicious stretch thing they did to accomodate his thick length.

Once he was inside her, Daryl wasn't sure what happened next. It was like he lost total control over himself. He was on his elbows to keep from crushing her, and his hands were stroking over her face, her hair, the taunt cords of her neck. He was pumping in and out of her, feeling her hips rocking under him in the same rhythm. And then he was talking. Murmuring into RickyJo's soft mane of silky hair. All the crap that he would never say out loud to anyone ever. That he loved her. Wanted her. Needed her. That he would want to die if anything happened to her. And most of all that he was sorry. Sorry for what happened in Mexico. Sorry for being such an asshole after that. Sorry sorry sorry for everything. Most of all for going to the CDC with Rick and not looking for her. The words just came vomiting out of him. They didn't stop until he came, shooting off deep inside her as her walls convulsed around him for what he was pretty sure was at least the third time.

Daryl lay still a moment before he rolled off. He flopped onto his back, breathing hard. He wanted to punch himself right in the face for running off at the mouth like he had. Getting all emotional like that. _Stop acting like a little fuckin' sissy._ Then he changed his mind. Those were Merle's words in his head, not his. Everything he said was true. He wasn't taking any of it back. Not what he said and not what happened. Then he turned and saw the tears. They were streaming down the sides of RickyJo's face. He didn't think he had ever seen her cry before. There were a few times she had locked herself in her room and come out later looking red a puffy. He knew she had cried, but he couldn't remember actuall seeing it happen. It was terrible to look at. She had a hand up, covering her mouth to keep from sobbing. Her body was shaking and twitching and the tears were running down both sides of her face, wetting her hair.

"Did I hurt you?," he gasped. He rolled over, intending to hold her, but hesitant in case him touching her was the reason she was upset. "I'm so sorry...," he stammered, "I thought you wanted to..." She shook her head. He thought she meant no at first. Like no she didn't want him and he had forced her. But then she rolled into him, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face into his bare chest. He heard her hiccup a few times, clenching her fists as she tried to get control of herself.

"Y... you... ya didn't hurt me," she stuttered between choked off sobs, "s'not that." Daryl relaxed. He rubbed her back and lay back, pulling her so she could rest her head on his chest. Her breathing slowly returned to normal. He wanted to know what was going on with her but to tell the honest truth, he was a little afraid to ask. When it came down to sharing feelings, Daryl knew RickyJo enjoyed that particular activity about as much as he did. Maybe less. He had only ever seen her express her feelings openly with her nieces, and a little with that new kid that was always hanging around her and Merle.

"Whatcha cryin' for," he finally asked once he decided he couldn't stand the silence anymore. The question brought RickyJo's head up off his chest. She turned away from him and started groping for her clothes. He thought about getting dressed, but he was lying on his shirt and vest, so he settled for tucking his dick back into his pants and zipping them up. RickyJo tucked fixed her shirt, noticing the seams near the armpits were ripped. Her underpants were in tatters, so she just pulled her pants back on along with her socks and boots. She felt the small holes the walkers teeth had left in her boot, thinking about how close she had some to being one of the undead. Or worse, a cripple like that old man back at the prison. No thank you very much. Being a burden on her loved ones was a far worse fate than simply being dead. She lit a smoke and leaned back against the uneven railing that ran around one side of the platform. Daryl held his hand out for the cigarette, wanting a drag.

"You goin' ta lay there all day," she asked, handing him the smoke. He shrugged and took a drag, blowing the smoke out through his nose like a dragon. He was fucking tired. When he handed the smoke back to RickyJo, he gave her a little grin.

"Dunno," he said, "you goin' to tell me what all that cryin' was about?" RickyJo shifted her gaze, looking out into the woods instead of meeting his eyes. Daryl was not going to let this shit go unless she gave him an explanation. She didn't want to make something up, but she didn't really want to tell him the truth either.

"Doesn't matter," she grumbled, taking another puff off her smoke and blowing it out. She brought her legs up and wrapped her arms around them, resting her chin on her knees. What she said was the truth. Part of the truth anyway. All that crap that Daryl blurted out. It didn't matter now. "It's too late," she said, her voice going quieter and getting a little more shaky. She felt like she might cry again, so she took another drag on her smoke and hugged her long legs tighter against her chest.

"Too late for what?," Daryl asked. She had his attention now. He was up off the floor of the platform, staring at her intently. She was trying to hide her emotions. And not doing a very good job of it. She looked sadder than Daryl could remember seeing her in a long time. He reached over and put one of his hands over hers. "Too late for what?"

"All that stuff you just said to me...," she said, stopping to bite at the skin around her thumb on the hand he wasn't holding. She chewed nervously for a moment and then forced her hand away from her mouth. She took a deep breath and forced herself to look at Daryl. _He's so handsome, why does he have to be so good looking._ She looked at him. Really looked at him. All the little details that made Daryl Daryl. The blue of his eyes. The way he was squinting them as he stared at her. The scruff of blonde hair on his chin, a few gray hairs mixed in with the golden ones that had not been there before. RickyJo took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"You should have told me all that years ago," she said, "now it's too late." She turned her head away after she said that, not willing or able to look at him anymore. Looking at his face made her feel like her heart was being ripped apart.

Daryl sat there for a moment, feeling stunned. He wasn't sure what to say. That was not what he had expected to hear from her. And the choked gravely sound of her voice. It made his heart hurt.

"Hey," he said, reaching over to cup her face in his palm. Making it so she had to look at him. "It's not too late." He felt her trying to turn her head away, but he held on. He rolled up onto his knees and took her face in both hands. "It ain't too late until yer dead. We ain't dead yet," he told her, fighting the urge to smash his mouth down on hers again and force her to believe him, "It's not too late."

RickyJo nodded. Only a slight bob of her head, since her face was pinned in place by Daryl's hands. But he felt it. He let go of her face and pulled her into a hug. When he let go she got up on her knees to press her lips to his. A very chaste kiss compared to what they had just done, but it felt like a promise. When she pulled back Daryl heard the crunch of leaves coming from below them. RickyJo sucked in her breath and her hand closed around his, giving him a gentle squeeze. Down below them there were several large animals, grazing on the small pile of rotten apples Daryl had left. The family of deer was back.


	24. Chapter 24

Five Minute Window

Chapter 24

 **** I was so excited to see all the love our old pal Merle is getting in my reviews. If you read Gone for Good, you know RickyJo left the prison with him and they ended up at Terminus. I haven't decided yet what I am doing with this version of the story, so keep the reviews coming everyone. ****

Merle woke up feeling lousy. First off, he was hungover. He was getting too old for this shit. And secondly, he woke up alone. Merle always thought having a full time woman would be the worst thing ever, so he had been surprised by how quickly he got used to waking up with RickyJo's warm body beside him. Since she wasn't there, he got up and started looking for RickyJo. Merle was thinking if he buttered her up a little, maybe she would make him some breakfast. Or rather lunch, since it was getting a little late in the morning for breakfast. He knew he could make his own oatmeal, but it tasted better when she made it.

Of course RickyJo was no where to be found. As usual. Sometimes being married felt more like a scavenger hunt. At least they were at the prison, so there were only so many places the woman could have run off to. Merle found Toby first, and the boy informed him that RickyJo had left with Daryl to go hunting. There went the only so many places she could be theory.

The coffee pot was empty. Merle grabbed a bottle of water instead, pinning it between his knees so he could twist the cap off one handed. He shambled back to his room, looking for a smoke. The only pack left was the malboro menthols. This fucking day was just getting better and better. Merle ripped the pack open and tapped it on his metal sleeve until one of the cigs was far enough out of the pack that he could snag it between his teeth. He stuffed the rest of the pack in his shirt pocket and headed outside.

Lifting the lighter up, Merle was about to flip the wheel when he froze in mid-motion. Something was not right here. He stomped back inside. That was it. The holding cell was empty. Andrea was gone.

"Who the hell let Andrea out?," Merle asked, directing his question to Hershel, since he was the only person around at the moment. The old man shrugged. Then he had the nerve to suggest that maybe if Merle had not been drinking so much the night before, he would know what had happened to the woman.

"Who let her out?," Merle asked, stepping a little closer to the man.

"Your wife," Hershel informed him, "so I suggest you take it up with her." Hershel knew Michonne had played a large part in Andrea's release, but it seemed safer to put the blame on RickyJo, someone that Merle seemed less likely to try and beat to death.

Merle turned on his heel and stomped back outside, muttering under his breath. _Had it with her cowboy shit this time. She couldn't even fucking tell me first. Going to tear her a new one when her stupid ass gets back here._ He lit his smoke, thinking about all the crap he was going to yell at RickyJo when she got back, and knowing he probably wasn't going to end up saying one word of it.

That dumb cop was heading Merle's way, walking with Jessica's new fuck buddy. Morgan. Of course the two of them knew each other somehow. Merle was pretty sure Jessica explained all that to him, but he had not been paying very much attention.

And speak of the devil. Down at near the fence, Toby and Cassie were swinging the gate open so Daryl and RickyJo could get through. They were swinging a good sized deer on a long branch between them. Merle huffed smoke out through his nose in irritation. They got lucky hunting, so now he wasn't even going to be able to give RickyJo shit for taking off without telling him. Anything he said could now be met with _oh but I got a deer._

Jessica and Cassie were dragging out a folding table. To butcher the deer up on. The meat would be better if it hung a day or two down in the tombs were it was cooler. Season it a little. But Merle knew everyone was too hungry for that. Gamey meat was still meat. Anything was better than canned creamed corn and oatmeal.

RickyJo and Daryl walked around the table and flopped the deer down, glad to get the weight of the heavy animal off their shoulders. As soon as Merle saw them, he knew something was wrong. They weren't looking at each other. And RickyJo wasn't looking at him either. Her eyes were fixed on her boots and her body language was off. She was focusing on her dog to try and make it less awkward. Something happened between them while they were out _hunting_ , Merle was willing to bet his other hand on it. Once the deer was on the table, Daryl mumbled some lame ass excuse and took off for inside the prison like someone lit a fire under his ass. He took great care not to look Merle in the face as he passed him by.

"That little weasel," Merle muttered. He flicked his smoke away and headed inside, hot on his brother's heels.

Daryl was opening a bottle of water when he felt someone behind him. All up in his personal space. Since it smelled like a man, there was only one person it could be.

"Fuck off away from me Merle," Daryl told the man. Merle had a annoying habit of getting in people's personal space. He knew Daryl hated it and he did it on purpose to make him uncomfortable. Instead of backing off, Merle grabbed Daryl's hand and put it up to his face like he was sniffing it. Daryl yanked his hand away. What in the hell kind of weird shit was that. It took Daryl a second to realize. He probably smelled like RickyJo.

"What the hell man! Fuck off away from me," Daryl said again, a little louder this time. Of course Merle still didn't back off. Instead he leaned in more so their noses were almost touching. His breath smelled like alcohol from the night before and Daryl fought the urge to wince back away from the other man.

"I know." That was all Merle said. The longer he was in Daryl's space, the more pissed off it was making him. And his emotions were already running high from everything that had just happened with RickyJo. And Merle was acting like a total creeper. _I know. Know this asshole. She was my girlfriend first._ That wasn't totally accurate, but he and RickyJo had been involved with each other. And Merle knew that shit when he put the moves on her. Merle had never had a problem finding a woman to do what he needed to with. Why did it have to be her?

"You know? You don't know shit," Daryl asked. He bumped his chest against his brother's, refusing to be intimidated. Merle was grinning now, that creepy smile that he got when he knew he was getting under someone's skin. Darylina was cute when he got all tough. _Thinks he's a big man now, fuckin' my wife._ They bumped against each other a little more, both refusing to back down. Finally Daryl decided he had enough.

"Know this," he said. Then he pulled his elbow back and slammed his fist into his brother's face.

TWD

The girls flipped the deer over. RickyJo smiled at her niece Cassie grateful that the girls were here. Not only because she had loved and missed them, but because now she had lots of help from people that actually knew what they were doing when it came to butchering up a deer. She and Daryl already field dressed it, so Cassie started cutting the skin around the bottoms of the legs. The hide was easier to remove if you could pull it all off in one big piece.

Toby knew a little, but as they went, RickyJo explained to him what they were doing. After they got the legs off, she handed Toby her knife and Cassie showed him where to cut next. She noticed Rick was leaning in to listen, but trying to act all nonchalant about it. RickyJobut her lip to hide and grin and stepped to the side so he could see better. Carol came walking out from inside with Judith on her hip, balancing a bucket of water in the other hand.

"In case anyone cares, Merle and Daryl are inside beating the shit out of each other," she announced.

"For real?," Carl asked. He glanced at his dad to see what the man was going to do about the situation. Jessica waved Carol off dismissively.

"Let them fight then," Jessica remarked, "Maybe they will knock some sense into each other."

Toby tossed the knife down and went tearing ass towards the door that led into the prison. RickyJo cursed under her breath and went after him, wiping the blood off her hands onto her pants. Chips went running past her, barking up a storm like the dog knew something exciting was going on.

When she got inside, RickyJo saw that beating the shit out of each other had been a bit of an exgaggeration. The brothers were wrestling around. They were hitting and punching each other, but not hard enough to do any permanent damage. She had seen them fight like this before. And since they weren't doing it in a place where her things were in danger of being broken, she normally wouldn't care. What concerned her was that they were yelling at each other. Really screaming and hollering. And they were yelling about her. Really foul shit too. Who's dick was bigger and who fucked her first. All kinds of things that were not the business of her family and everyone else that lived at the prison.

Of course everyone from outside came filing into the prison right behind RickyJo. They were all wearing mixed emotions on their faces. Rick almost looked amused, but like he was trying to be serious. Desire and Duane looked scared. And Maggie looked angry. Hershel stepped forward, hopping along on his crutches and trying to ignore the extremely disgusting language that was reverberating off the cement walls of the prison.

"Alright, break it up," he told the men, "that's enough now." Daryl looked over at Hershel, and Merle used the opportunity to try and roll his brother onto his back and get on top of him. He slammed the man into a chair in the process and the chair flung into Hershel, knocking him down. Maggie and Glenn ran over to help him up off the ground. After her father was back on his feet, Maggie took the opportunity to air her grievences. Which were mainly complaints about Merle. She pointed at the man.

"He shouldn't even be allowed to live with us. Just look at how he acts. That crazy man is after us and it's all his fault. He's a total lunatic!," she hollered. Her words were directed mostly at Rick, since she still considered him the leader of the group. Though who was in charge now seemed to be up for debate.

While some of Maggie's complaints may have been valid, RickyJo was not going to put up with anyone talking shit about her family. Especially someone who she considered to be a snotty little bitch. She closed the distance between her and Maggie before anyone even knew what was going on. Glenn was staring at her with his mouth wide open like a codfish. RickyJo grabbed Maggie, one hand twisted into the woman's shirt and she seized her by the hair with the other hand. Then she swung her around and threw her into Glenn, sending them both flying onto the floor.

"See how ya like talkin' your shit from down there bitch," she hollered at the woman once her ass was on the ground. Since she no longer regarded Maggie as a threat, RickyJo turned her attention back to Merle and Daryl.

Thinking that Maggie was too much of a princess to fight back had been her mistake. Glenn tried to hold the woman back, grabbing her by the shirt. He felt the material give way and then Maggie was launching herself at RickyJo.

Maggie took the other woman by surprise, so she was able to knock her to the ground and get a few hits in. But the fight quickly went bad for her from there. Not only was RickyJo taller than her and had a longer reach, she had been eating well in Woodbury all winter while Maggie starved on the road. She outweighed her by a good twenty pounds at least. And this was not exactly RickyJo's first time fighting another girl.

RickyJo rolled on top of Maggie and brought her arm all the way back, slapping her hard across the face. Michonne decided enough was enough. She darted forward and grabbed RickyJo, wrapping her arm around the woman's neck and dragging her up and off the other woman. Toby had been having a grand time watching Merle and Daryl fight. But he did not like the way Michonne was grabbing at RickyJo. It looked like she was choking her. Making it so she couldn't breathe. Plus it was upsetting Chips and making the dog bark.

"Don't you touch my Aunt Ricky," the boy hollered. It came out like some psychotic battle cry. Rick would swear later that the kid cleared a table Charles Manson style as he flew at the woman that had her hands on his friend. Toby Landed square on the woman's back. And then Toby did what Toby does. He sunk his teeth in and bit Michonne. Hard.

Michonne let out a scream that was much more high pitched then one would have imagined a noise could sound coming out of that particular woman. She released her grip on RickyJo immediately. Since RickyJo had been struggling against her to get at Maggie, she flung forward like she was fired out of a slingshot. Her forehead collided against Maggie's with a very audible thunk. Both women fell back, their hands on their heads. RickyJo could see black spots swimming in front of her eyes.

Meanwhile, Michonne was trying to shake Toby off her back. She didn't want to hurt the kid, but she was also afraid he might bite her again. "Someone get him off me," she yelled.

Suddenly a loud bang rang out through the prison. The sound was deafening. It echoed off the walls all the way down into the tombs. Toby let go of Michonne and dropped to the ground, scampering over to RickyJo and climbing into her lap like he was the one that had been attacked and bitten. Merle and Daryl let go of each other. Carol set down the bucket of water she had been about to throw on them. Everyone looked up to see who had fired the gun off. Rick's eyes flew open. Beth. She was still holding the gun over her head, waiting to see if she was going to need to fire it off again. But it was the look on her face that really got him. She looked absolutely disgusted with all of them.


	25. Chapter 25

Five Minute Window

Chapter 25

After Beth stopped the fight, people calmed down and most of them attempted to regain some form of self control. What needed to get done got done. The deer got butchered up faster than any deer Rick had ever seen. Then they all sat down and roughed out a plan for the next day. The plan had not changed much from the last time. They were still going to break down one of the gates at Woodbury. The noise would attract the walkers. Hopefully a lot of them. While the residents of the town dealt with the dead, the prison group was going to steal their trucks and clear out their armory. Now they were just going to do it while they thought the governor and a few of his key enforcers were gone. Seemed like pussy shit to Merle, but he kept his mouth shut. He had his own plan. One he didn't intend on sharing.

The kids helped Carol cook up some of the venison for dinner. She made a rough sort of chili out of it, which was seasoned with the right amount of hunger and tasted better than it smelled. The rest of the meat was cut into strips and hung out over several smoky fires to dry so it would keep without having to be refrigerated.

Rick kept a close eye on RickyJo and Maggie, since they were the ones he thought seemed most likely to start up fighting again. But the two women seemed to have made some sort of truce, temporary as it might have been. During the planning, they sat together, leaning the swollen knots on their heads against the one cold pack that Hershel had left in his limited medical supplies.

After the food had been eaten and the plans had been made, RickyJo retreated into Michonne's room. Neutral territory. Rick figured things were calm enough for the time being and headed out to take watch in the tower. As he started up the steps, he heard the sound of someone's quiet voice drifting down the steps from the small room above. As he climbed higher, he realized he was listening to Beth sing. The song was sad, and not the type of music he would expect a teenage girl to listen to.

 _...so she left Monte Rio, son_

 _Just like a bullet leaves a gun_

 _With charcoal eyes and Monroe hips_

 _she went and took that California trip_

 _Well, the moon was gold, her_

 _Hair like wind_

 _She said don't look back just_

 _come on Jim_

 _Oh you got to_

 _Hold on, Hold on_

 _You got to hold on_

 _Take my hand, I'm standing right here_

 _You gotta hold on..._

Beth must have sensed his presence in the doorway, since her voice trailed off into nothing. She was leaning against one of the windows, her breath making a soft cloud of fog on the dirty glass. When she turned her big blue eyes on Rick, he shifted uncomfortably in place. Like he had been caught watching her undress.

"What are you doing up here by yourself?," he asked, trying to cover up his discomfort.

"Everyone was planning the attack," Beth said with a sigh. No one ever bothered to ask for her opinion. So she came out here. Beth figured she could help by keeping watch while everyone else was inside. No one even noticed when she left. Sometimes she felt invisible. She thought it would get better when the new girls showed up, since she might have someone to hang out with. But what she found was that she was too old to feel comfortable hanging out with Jessica's daughters. They were nice, but they played with Judith like she was a baby doll. Beth found she didn't have much in common with them. The older women were either too intimidating for her to try and hang out with, or like Carol, they treated her like a child.

"You're part of everyone," Rick reminded her. She looked so sad. So lonely. The same way he felt inside since Lori died. Really, he had felt that way since he killed Shane. But Lori's death intensified it. He thought Judith should be filling that hole in his heart, but he mostly just found himself staring down at the little girl and trying to figure out if she looked like him. Which she didn't.

"No one cares what I think," Beth said. The way she said it was what got Rick. Like it was nothing more than a simple fact of life for her. Like she was a waste of air. Which she wasn't. He felt terrible for her. Before he could stop himself, Rick found himself closing the distance between him and Beth and putting an arm around her shoulder. She relaxed into his chest. It felt good having the small blonde girl in his arms. Better than he thought it would. Her hair smelled like the end of the world never happened. He wasn't expecting that.

"You're not Michonne, you're not Carol, you're not me, or your sister, or one of Daryl's crazy family members," he told her. The last part made her giggle a little. "But you're still here. You're a survivor too."

Beth spun her body, so she could wrap her other arm around his waist. Her back was to the window now, one soft cheek resting against his chest. Then she pulled back slightly so she could raise up on her tiptoes and plant a chaste little kiss on his cheek. She lowered herself back down onto her flat feet, but she made no move to get out of Rick's arms.

"How old are you?" Rick hear the words vomiting out of his mouth before he meant to say them. Beth smelled so good. One of his hands was resting on her hips, the other was between her shoulder blades. He was starting to get aroused, thinking about how good her hair would feel if he ran his fingers through it. And he was also feeling like a bit of a pervert. Beth was way too young for him. And she was Hershel's daughter. Which made it feel even worse, like he was betraying the man.

"Eighteen," Beth answered, her lips turing up into a smile. Beth lied, telling Rick what she knew he wanted to hear. She was really seveteen, or maybe even still sixteen depending on what month it was. At some point she stopped counting. What did her age matter at the end of the world? Rick was such a cop sometimes. She had been through more crap in the last year than most adults went through in their entire lives. _I don't want to die a virgin._ It wasn't the first time the thought had crossed her mind. She had written about it a few times in her diary. But up until now, there had been a lack of willing participants in the activity she had been thinking she might want to engage in.

Rick was looking down at her. She could sense a lot of hesitation in him. Maybe because he knew she was lying about her age, or maybe he was just nervous. But he still had his arms around her. So that counted for something. She knew if she wanted anything else to happen between them, she was going to have to make her desires known. But Beth wasn't really sure what to do. The only boy she ever did anything with was Jimmy, and he never needed any encouragement.

Beth raised up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against Rick again. But she didn't kiss his cheek. This time she kissed him on the mouth. His lips felt dry. She flicked her tounge out to wet her own lips and felt it graze across his by accident. His arms tightened around her, pulling her closer. She could feel how hard his body was. And there was a hard lump in his pants that had not been there before. It was pressing into her stomach. The thought of what that was made her want to press her thighs together. Instead she took one hand back from around Rick's waist and slid it between them, rubbing him awkwardly through his pants. She didn't know how men liked to be touched. He moaned and slipped his tounge between her lips she so figured she must being doing something right.

TWD

Michonne and RickyJo were lying side by side on the lower bunk in Michonne's was asleep on the bunk above them, snoring softly. Jessica had come in and sat with the women awhile, combing out and braiding RickyJo's long hair for her into two long tight ropes that hung down her back and swung when she moved. Then Morgan had come to collect the woman for bed. A few minutes later, RickyJo could hear muffled moans coming from their cell. It made her smile. She was glad Jessica finally found someone to love that loved her back. She didn't know Morgan very well yet, but she had been watching the man closely. He was patient with her neices and protective over Jessica. RickyJo had not made her final judgement yet, but so far she liked him better than any of the woman's previous boyfriends, of which there had been too many to count.

Thinking about Jessica's love life led RickyJo to thoughts of her own. And what a colossal mess she had made out of it. Trying to sort out her feelings made her brain hurt worse than her heart. She was grateful for Michonne's quiet ways. The woman didn't bombard her with questions the way Jessica had. She just moved over on her bunk so they could lie side by side and shared a bag of stale peanut m&m's with her. The women ate the candy slowly. Who knew when or if they were going to find any more. RickyJo took one piece at a time, sucking on the candy and letting the chocolate melt in her mouth before she chewed and swallowed the peanut. She felt a little guilty about not sharing the candy with Toby, but not guilty enough to stop eating it or save him any.

There was a light tap on the bars of the cell. RickyJo craned her neck, looking to see who it was with her head almost upside down. She was hoping it was not Merle or Daryl, but sort of hoping it was one of them at the same time. It was Merle. He had his arm piece off.

"I need yer help with ma thing," he informed her. She knew what that meant. The arm piece he insisted on wearing more than he should rubbed his arm the wrong way sometimes. Also his stump didn't get much air stuffed inside that thing, and in some parts where the skin was still healing it would crack and bleed. He needed help taking care of the wounds and sore spots and wrapping his arm in gauze and padding.

RickyJo grabbed one more piece of chocolate and popped it in her mouth. Then she rolled off the bed and followed Merle back to his call. Or maybe it was still their cell? She didn't know anymore after what happened earlier today. Michonne watched her go until she was out of sight, but made no move to call RickyJo back. If she wanted to come back she would.

Merle sat still while RickyJo tended to his arm. How gentle her touch was always surprised him a little. While Merle normally hated taking help from anyone, he liked watching her work on his wrist. RickyJo had been the one to cauterize his wrist after he cut his hand off, and since then she had been acting like it was her personal mission to make sure his wound healed right.

He wasn't happy about her acting like she was going to sleep in Michonne's cell, he would rather have her in his room. But at least she wasn't sleeping with Daryl. Merle figured that meant she had not made up her mind yet about who or what she wanted. Which meant he still had a chance. He wasn't stupid enough to start demanding answers from her now. He had known her long enough to know all that would do was make her clam up.

"Ready for tomorra?," he asked her. She was biting at her lower lip, spreading a thin layer of neosporin over one particularly bad spot on his wrist. RickyJo nodded, not taking her eyes off what she was doing.

"Ready as I'll ever be I s'pose," she said with a shrug. Then her eyes flicked up to meet his.

"Thinking 'bout changin' the plan aren't you?," RickyJo added. Merle snorted out a laugh. She knew him well. It wasn't that he thought the plan she and Rick had made was bad. He just thought priority number one should be killing the governor. They knew where the man was going to be tomorrow. Merle thought they ought to go there and kill him. Then take the town. Without Phillip, the town would fold in a heartbeat.

Merle thought long and hard before he spoke. He didn't want to put RickyJo in more danger than they were all already in. But he knew he could use her help for what he was planning to do. And he would rather have her by his side during the fight where he could see her and help her if she needed it, rather than just letting her go with the rest of the group and just hoping she was going to make it back alive.

"I could use some backup," he finally admitted.


	26. Chapter 26

Five Minute Window

Chapter 26

RickyJo had a cheap plastic watch in her bag. Thankfully the battery on it wasn't dead. So before she went to sleep, she set it to go off in four hours. To wake her and Merle up while everyone else was still fast asleep in their cells with visions of walkers and sugarplums dancing in their heads.

It felt like she had only just closed her eyes when the little beep beep beep pulled her from her sleep. She closed her hand over the watch to quiet the noise and fumbled with it until her finger found the tiny little button on the side that hushed it up.

She rolled, expecting to feel Merle there behind her, like he had been when she fell asleep. But the other side of the tiny prison cot was cold and empty. She felt her panic rise in her, thinking that he left without her. Went after the governor himself. But then she saw the tiny red light of a cigarette glow brighter in the dark stuffy air of the place. He was sitting in a chair against the opposite wall of the cell smoking.

"Couldn't sleep?," she whispered softly, her voice sounding louder than it was against the silence of the air around them. He didn't answer her, just took another drag on the smoke he was holding. She figured it was a stupid question anyway. Obviously he couldn't sleep. Or he would have been asleep.

RickyJo swung her legs down from the bed. But she didn't put her boots on yet. She stayed in her sockie feet. There was a little quiet sneaking around she needed to do. In one hand she held the spare keys to the trucks from woodbury and a tiny flashlight in the other. Her fist closed around the light end so it only gave off a eerie red glow. Just enough light for her to see where she was going.

The destination she had in mind was Rick's cell. At some point she had given him back the set of keys that opened up the cells and the outer gates. A peace offering. But now she was going to be needing them back. So she and Merle could lock the gates up behind them when they left.

RickyJo moved slowly. Rick was a light sleeper and the last thing she needed was for him to wake up and catch wind of what was going on. Then Daryl would find out and insist on going with them. And she wanted him here. Where he was safe.

When she crept inside his room, RickyJo almost choked on her own spit. She wasn't expecting to find him in bed with someone. And she was definitely not expecting to find him in bed with Hershel's jailbait daughter. Beth. The pretty one with the sweet sounding voice. They were both naked, covered only with a ratty sleeping bag. Beth had her head rested on Rick's chest and one slim pale leg was hiked over him, sticking out from the covers. They looked relaxed and happy together. It made RickyJo wonder how long this had been going on behind her father's back.

Quickly deciding that where Rick plowed it was not her main concern at the moment, RickyJo plucked his pants up from where he had discarded them and fished through his pockets for the keys. She found them in his back right pocket. Slipping them into her own pocket, RickyJo crept closer to the bed. She leaned in and hooked the truck keys to the bottom of the upper bunk. So Rick would see them as soon as he woke up. He was smart enough to know what they meant. Go get the trucks. Don't worry about us.

"You got 'em?," Merle whispered as she re-entered the cell.

"Got 'em," RickyJo whispered back, "got a free show too. His cop ass was naked in there with Beth."

"That little blonde girl?," Merle asked. He didn't know any other Beths. But she seemed a little young for Rick. And as much as he liked to think horrible things about the man, Rick didn't seem like the type to take advantage of a girl like that.

"There some other girls named Beth 'round here that ya know?" RickyJo heard Merle's laughter. Almost silent in the quiet of the place.

They already had their bags packed. Weapons loaded. Plan made. They went through the gate and then tossed the keys back over. RickyJo didn't want the others to be stuck inside the prison. And if something went sideways, she didn't want the governor getting ahold of the keys either.

TWD

RickyJo got up and stretched her legs. Tossing the rifle she had over her shoulers she hooked her elbows over it, using it to give her back a good stretch. She felt like they had been hiding in this stupid place for hours. Probably because they had been hiding in this stupid place for hours. She was starting to feel restless. And starting to worry that Phillip's ass wasn't going to show his coward face around here.

There were tons of walkers milling around outside. She and Merle had lured them in on purpose. That way when the governor and his cronies showed up they would start shooting at them. The noise would make it harder for them to realize that they were being shot at.

"I can't fucking wait anymore," she whined. Merle glanced at her and turned back to the window, ignoring her complaint. She didn't get going like that often. But when she did, there was nothing more annoying than RickyJo when she started pissing and moaning.

"Ya ain't gonna have to," he said, "think I hear 'em coming." That announcement had RickyJo back at her post in a flash. Her rifle pointing out the crack in the window. Merle better not be fucking with her. She said a little silent prayer. _Don't be driving the armoured trucks. Don't be driving the armoured trucks. I can't wait to shoot you dead. And please don't be driving the trucks that Rick has the keys for._ Three normal pickup trucks pulled up. RickyJo wiggled her hips a little in her excitement. That's right now. Get ready to die.

"Wait until they start shootin'," Merle reminded her. She looked ready to jump the gun. In fact he had never seen a woman so excited to shoot someone in his whole entire life.

"I fuckin' know the plan Merle," she spit back.

To her credit, she did know the plan. They waited until all the men were out of the trucks, shooting at the biters that were shuffling around the place. Then she and Merle started shooting at them. Picking off the ones in the back so the others wouldn't know they were being fired on until it was too late. It was harder than RickyJo thought it would be. She and Merle had lived in Woodbury a long time. Some of these people were her friends. They were good men. She didn't want to kill them and found herself aiming for their shoulders instead of their heads.

It was time. She didn't care if he was standing out in front where everyone could see him. RickyJo was going to take out the governor and end this. She was hoping the rest of them would all take off running if he fell. She got him in her sights. And she aimed right for his chest. He wasn't getting mercy. She would let that bastard turn.

RickyJo took one deep breath and let it out slowly as she pulled the trigger. Her aim was good. But some dumb kid stepped right into her line of fire. He fell down dead on the ground. The governor looked down at him. She could see the wheels turning in his mind and she re-cocked her gun. She fired again. But it was too late. The bullet sailed past his shoulder and hit a stray walker.

Merle was cussing up a storm. The governor had made them. Now he and the other men had taken cover behind the trucks. And there were still way too many of them for he and RickyJo to be taking on without the element of surprise.

"Think it might be time to make a run for it," he said, "live to fight another day." The men knew they were being shot at. But they had not figured out from where yet. He and RickyJo would be smart to clear out before they got made.

"Ya know they're not very good shots," RickyJo argued. She knew Merle was right, but more than anything she wanted to finish this. They had come here to kill Phillip and she didn't want to leave until he was dead.

Merle turned, looking at her and trying to decide what to do. Before he could speak again, the sound of more gunshots could be heard from outside. It took RickyJo a minute to figure out what was going on. Someone was shooting at them from the other side. Shooting at the governor and his men from behind them as they hid behind the trucks. And the person was not doing a very good job at it either. Whoever was shooting was basically just unloading on them without even really aiming.

"Who the fuck is that?," RickyJo asked.

"Hell if I fuckin' know," Merle answered, "I think we are about to find out though." Martinez and another man took off for the building where the shots were being fired from. His first thought was that it was little brother. But Daryl was a much better shot than that. So was Jessica. So was pretty much everyone else he could think of that might be over there.

RickyJo felt the panic rising up in her. She knew who it was before she saw them. As soon as she heard the barking she knew. Toby. He must have heard them last night or seen them sneaking out early this morning. Two grown men dragged the boy from the building. He was trying to kick and bite and scratch, but they were wise to his tricks. The governor forced the boy down onto the ground and put a heavy boot on his back to keep him there. Chips was barking up a storm but Phillip yelled out above the noise.

"I know you're there," he said. He pointed his gun down at Toby's head. "Come out or he's going to get it. You have thirty seconds. Twenty nine. Twenty eight. Twenty seven..."

RickyJo kicked open the door to the small shack she and Merle were hiding in. She had her gun up, trained on Phillip's head.

"Let 'im go right fuckin' now!," she screamed at the man. "We know yer not going to shoot a little kid so just let him go Phillip." She hoped saying that in front of the other men might make the man think twice about what he was doing.

"Oh no?," he countered. He pointed his gun away from Toby and fired it. Shooting Chips the dog at point blank range. The dog let out a sickening yelp and then flopped on the ground, blood spreading out around it in a widening puddle. Toby let out a strangled scream, followed by the most horrible raw sobbing RickyJo had ever heard.

Phillip pointed his gun at Toby again. RickyJo could feel the tears coming and she blinked them back. No time to cry now. She would cry about her dog tomorrow. The wheels were turning in her mind. Trying to think of anything she could do to save herself and Merle and Toby. There was no way out of this.

"Both of you drop your guns now or the next shot is going through Toby's head," Phillip yelled out. RickyJo heard Merle swear. And then he tossed his rifle on the ground in front of him. She did the same.

"Your side arms too. I'm not stupid," he added. RickyJo pulled her handgun from the back of her pants and tossed it down. Merle did the same. She still had a gun in her boot, but there was no way she could go for it without being riddled full of bullets.

There had to be a something she could do. Then it came to her. An idea so horrible that it brought burning bile rising up into the back of her throat. She took another look at Toby. Crying and being crushed into the ground under the governor's boot. She turned to Merle.

"I want you to take Toby and go," she hissed. He looked confused. But she knew he wouldn't be after what she was going to say next.

RickyJo put her hands up in the air and took a few steps forward. She looked Phillip dead in the face.

"Your offer," she said, making sure he was listening. "I'll take it." He looked as confused as Merle had at first, but then a sickening grin spread across his face. He knew what she meant. She walked towards the man, slowly, skirting around to body of her dead dog and stepping over a walker. _You can do this. You have to do it or you are going to watch the people you care about die in front of you and then it's going to happen anyway._

Phillip had his eyes on her. He was watching her with a large amount of susicion. But he let her get close to him anyway. She put her hands on his chest and then she lifted up onto her tiptoes and kissed him. One hand came up behind her head and he ground his mouth down on hers. It took all her willpower not to yank away from him.

"Let them go and I'll go with you," RickyJo told him. He looked at her, thinking over her offer.

"I want more than that," he told her. She kept her face neutral, but inside she was screaming. She figured it was implied that she was going to let him have sex with her. So what the hell else could he want?

"My daughter is dead," he told her, "I'll be needing a new child. A son this time. And you are going to give me one." The idea was sickening. Even more sickening than sleeping with this man and letting him touch her. But it was also something RickyJo figured she could stall on for a while. It's not like he was going to be able to make her pop a baby out the minute they got back to Woodbury.

"Whatever you want," she said, her voice void of emotion.

"Get those guns," Phillip told his men, pointing to the ones he had made RickyJo and Merle throw down. He waited until the guns were picked up. Then he let Toby go. The boy scrambled over to Chip's lifeless form and gathered the dog into his lap. RickyJo tried not to look at him. She could feel herself shutting down. Eyes going unfocused. There was a hand on the small of her back, leading her towards one of the trucks. The truck door was opened for her and she was guided inside. She clasped her hands in her lap and stared down at them. When they pulled out they were going to drive right past Merle and she didn't want to see his face.


	27. Chapter 27

Five Minute Window

Chapter 27

She wrapped one towel around her hair, twisting it up into a turban on her head. The other one she wrapped around her body, sinching it tight and tucking one corner in to keep it up. Her weapons were gone. Phillip had taken the gun in her boot, the knife in her other boot. And then finally he had just taken her boots. Then he told Martinez to bring her here.

RickyJo didn't bother to search the room for possible weapons. She was in the holding room. The room where they took all the new people to let them get cleaned up. The reason they used this room for that purpose was because everything in it was secured and there was nothing that could be used as a weapon. If Phillip had taken her back to his apartment to let her get cleaned up, she might have been able to find something to kill him with. But he wasn't that stupid. Even the glass of water they had left on the table for her was made of plastic. Like she was a psycho in a loony bin that might smash the glass and use it to slit her wrists.

She grabbed the water and sipped at it while she paced back and forth across the small open space in the room between the bed and the table. While she paced she stared at the fresh clothes that had been left for her on the foot of the bed. Heels. And a dress. Was this some kind of fucking joke? Not that she never dressed up back in her before life, but she never would have worn something like the outfit that was laid out on the bed for her. Hooker heels and a short tight dress. That was Jessica's style. Not hers. Tank tops to show off her tattoos were about as racy as she got.

The clothes she had been wearing when she got here were gone. Along with her wedding ring and the chain she wore it on. Who knew when or if she was ever going to see that again. Faced with the choice between putting on this hooker outfit and walking through town swathed only in a towel, RickyJo finally bit her lip and walked over to the bed. She dropped her towel on the floor and dressed quickly, making the unpleasant task take as little time as possible. The dress was snug against her skin and the fabric felt cheap and scratchy. She dropped the towel that her hair was wrapped up in and combed through it with her fingers. Jessica had brushed it out for her the night before so it wasn't as matted and tangled as it usually got. RickyJo knew she was going to regret it before she even did it, but she walked over to the mirror on the wall near the shower and looked at herself.

She barely recognized the woman that was staring back at her. The blonde hilites she used to have in her hair had grown out, leaving her with about six inches of dirty blonde roots. That actually didn't look so bad. There were mulitcolored bruises all over her body. On her neck, her arms. The nasty knot she got while she was wrestling with Maggie was still sticking out on the side of her forehead like a big bee sting. And she was thin. Maybe thinner that she had ever been before even when she was eating nothing but bowls of leaves and doing yoga everyday with Laney.

The spiked heels were high and RickyJo was having a hard time keeping her balance with them on. The dress was even shorter and tighter on, and it shoved her breasts together. If it wasn't for all the tattoos, she would look just like one of Cassie's barbie dolls. _Now available on toy store shelves everywhere, alternative lifestyle barbie._ She gulped the rest of the water down, wishing it was vodka. She looked like a post apocalyptic stripper.

There was a brief knock on the door before it was swung open. Martinez was standing in the doorway. His mouth dropped open a little when he saw her. He quickly snapped it shut and put his game face back on. RickyJo could tell he was a little rattled though. They had never really been close, he had been more friendly with Merle than he was with her. Maybe that was why he was having a hard time keeping his composure.

"You're not here to help me, are you?," she asked. He didn't answer her. Instead he gestured for her to come with him.

"Just come on," he said. RickyJo shrugged and did as he told her. Not like she had a choice. Martinez had a gun and she didn't. Thankfully not many people were outside. Because the ones that were stared at her as she passed by. She tried to ignore them and concentrate on walking in her shoes without breaking an ankle. RickyJo didn't need to follow Martinez to know where they were going. He was taking her to Phillip's apartment.

RickyJo was not sure what to expect when she got there. In her mind, she was picturing the worst situations possible. Torture chambers. Handcuffs and a set of knives laid out on a tiny metal table like in the movies. Instead she found a very different scene once the door was opened for her.

The place was clean. There was a vase of fresh flowers on the table. Lilacs. She could smell them along with the smell of something good being cooked on a hot plate. _You have got to be kidding me._ This was some kind of regular seduction scene. It was one hundred and five percent creepy. Like they were pretending this was something it wasn't. There was even some low music playing. She recognized it. Moonglow, the theme song from the movie Picnic.

"You look beautiful," Phillip informed her, like she had dressed up special just for him.

Martinez was quickly dismissed and the door was shut behind him. RickyJo expected the man to try and jump her, now that they were alone. But instead he kissed her on the side of her forehead, running his hand down over her freshly washed hair. Then he walked over to the table and pulled out a chair for her. Once she was seated, he poured a glass of wine and handed it to her.

"I know you're mad at me," he said, taking the seat next to her at the small table. Mad at him? Like they were married and had some sort of minor spat over who's turn it was to do the dishes? He was even fucking crazier than she thought.

"I would like a chance to earn back your trust," he continued on, "I want you to be happy here. With me." RickyJo took a sip of her wine and said nothing. It was good wine. She set her glass down and stared at Phillip, waiting for the other shoe to drop. He was being way too nice.

Reaching over, he grabbed a small box from the other side of the table and set it down in front of her. She stared at the gift for a moment, like it was a snake that was ready to bite her. He was clearly waiting for her to open it, so she did. Taking the box in her hands, she snapped back the little black lid. There was a pair of diamond earrings inside. Big ones. She guessed she was supposed to be impressed with them. Back in the old world, this would have been a very expensive gift. Now it was nothing more than shiny worthless garbage. RickyJo set the box back down on the table and crossed her arms.

"Where's Andrea?," she asked. The question caught him off guard. She could tell. But to his credit he did recover quickly.

"I assume she must be back at the prison by now," he said, "After she delivered your message, she left." An obvious lie. He had that woman stashed around here somewhere. Or else he had already killed her.

"She never came back," RickyJo told him.

"Well if something happened to her on the way," he lied, "I can't be blamed for that. It's a dangerous world out there." Phillip's smile turned her stomach. Merle was a bastard. But at least he was upfront about it. He never pretended to be something he wasn't. This guy was nothing but a big fat phony. A wolf in sheep's clothing. No one ever called him on it either. It drove her fucking crazy.

RickyJo picked her glass of wine back up and tilted it up, drinking the rest of it down in a few slow gulps. She could tell Phillip was waiting to see what she was going to do next. Watching her. So she set her glass down and picked up the earring box. She took them out carefully, one at a time, and threaded them through the holes in her ears. Then she offered Phillip up a big fake smile before she spoke to him again.

"Ya know," she said, letting her country accent come out a little more than she usually did, "yer not as good a liar as ya think you are."


	28. Chapter 28

Five Minute Window

Chapter 28

Daryl woke up in a cold sweat. He had been having an extremely vivid dream about his father. Hadn't thought about that bastard in years, but he could never really shake that particular monkey all the way off his back. Since he knew there was little chance of him being able to get back to sleep, and it was looking like it was starting to get light out anyway, he rolled himself out of bed.

He had picked out the cell he was sleeping in for a particular reason. From his bed, if he laid the right way, he could see up and down almost the entire lower block of the prison. His original reason for choosing the cell was so he could see danger coming. But now he was using it for another less righteous purpose. To spy. Well maybe not spy exactly, but watch. He had seen RickyJo go into Michonne's cell last night. Which had been a relief. He would rather she came to his room with him, but if she was sleeping anywhere besides with his brother, Daryl considered it a small victory.

Daryl waited a while after she went in with Michonne. For Jessica to go to bed in her own cell and for things to settle down and for the residents of the prison to go to bed. He was planning on going to go down and talk to her. When he had been almost ready to make his move, he saw his brother had a similar idea. And that fucker was quicker on his feet than Daryl was too. Merle walked quietly down the block and leaned into Michonne's cell. He had a few quiet words with RickyJo that Daryl could not make out. Whatever he said to her she must have liked, because a few seconds later she left Michonne's cell and gone back to Merle's cell with him. She did not come back out.

Daryl tried not to listen, but he listened anyway. He did not hear them having sex. _Thank god for small favors._ But it still hurt to know she was in there all night. Sleeping in the same bed as him.

Walking down the metal steps, Daryl headed outside. He told himself he wasn't going to look inside Merle's cell when he passed by. But of course he did anyway. It was like a traffic accident. He just couldn't stop his head from turning to get a peek. The cell was empty. Neither of them were in there. That in itself was not alarming. He figured they were probably just outside having a smoke or pissing or something.

But when Daryl went outside, he found that area empty as well. Glenn and Maggie were on night watch. Which really meant no one was on watch, since all they did was hump like rabbits all night. With the yard full, they couldn't get down to the watch tower. So they had been taking watch on the fenced in catwalk. Daryl headed that way, spotting Glenn. The man was leaned back in a chair, snoring like a moose.

Daryl banged on the metal fence, making a loud racket. Glenn jumped up, knocking into a wooden pallet. It almost fell over on top of him, but he caught it with his hand.

"Seen ma brother?," Daryl asked him, "ya seen RickyJo?" Glenn stuttered and muttered. He finally just shook his head. Daryl stomped away, wondering why he even bothered to ask. It was obvious that Glenn had not seen anything all night. Good thing they weren't attacked during his watch, or they would all be dead.

Daryl headed back inside. This time he took a better look inside Merle's cell. Their shit was still in there. But the guns were gone. And not just their handguns, the rifles too. Wherever they went, they went packing. Daryl was starting to get more nervous. He had a bad feeling in his gut about this.

"Michonne," he said, no longer bothering to be quiet. The woman woke up reaching for her sword. Ready for a fight.

"Huh?," she asked once she saw there was no immediate threat and Daryl seemed to be yelling for no reason.

"You seen RickyJo?," he asked. The woman shook her head. But she also got out of bed like she was about to start helping him look. Toby came tumbling out of the top bunk, calling the dog to him.

"Where's my Aunt Ricky?," the kid asked. He looked worried. When Daryl told him he didn't know where the woman was Toby came flinging out of the cell howling like a wounded moose. That kid had a set of lungs on him that was for sure.

"AUNT RICKY! UNCLE MERLE!," Toby screamed at the top of his lungs. He started running around, flinging open curtains and throwing shit around. This racket soon had everyone tripping and stumbling out of their cells. Scratching their heads and trying to figure out what new horror had been bestoyed upon them. Jessica came out buttoning her pants up. From what the kid was screaming, she quickly figured out that the problem seemed to be that her cousin was missing. She added her voice to Toby's.

"RickyJo!," Jessica hollered, "where you at?" If she found out Merle did anything to her because of yesterday, she was going to kick him straight in his balls.

"HEY!," Rick hollered, trying to get everyone's attention. He took his gun and banged it on the metal bars of his cell.

"You seen my cousin?," Jessica asked him. He shook his head and held up the keys he had found dangling above his head.

"No, but I found these," he said. Daryl grabbed the keys from Rick's hand and took a good look at them. They were the extra keys for the armoured trucks at Woodbury. He threw them against the wall and started cussing.

"What, what is it?," Jessica asked him.

"Her and Merle, they fuckin' went after the governor by themselves," he yelled at her, like what was going on should be obvious to everyone by now. Why else would they take off with only their weapons unless they were about to jump someone. And who else would they possibly be going after besides that one eyed freak. This bullshit stunk of Merle. RickyJo would never have come up with such a half cocked plan.

Everyone started yelling at once. Daryl was grabbing his shit up out of his cell like he was going to take off after them. Jessica was doing the same. Morgan was trying to talk her out of it. Rick was saying they should keep to the plan and go after the trucks. Glenn and Maggie were back and trying to figure out what the hell was going on. And Hershel was trying to make everyone calm down.

"Toby just took off with the dog and a gun that was bigger than him," Michonne yelled out above the noise.

"You just let him go?," Rick asked. The dark skinned woman threw her hands up in the air.

"I tried to stop him, that kid runs like a rat," she spit back. And since when had she become the designated rabid child babysitter around here. That kid took off like a bat straight out of hell. If she had tried to grab him, he probably would have bit her again. And she already had a huge bruise on her neck from the last time.

"Everyone sit down and shut up!," Hershel roared. He was no longer being polite, so that meant his quota for bullshit had been reached for the day. Or maybe he had seen his youngest daughter come flinging out of Rick's cell half dressed once Toby started howling and woke everyone up. It was hard to say.

Rick was stuck on the idea that they ought to follow through on the original plan. That was obviously what RickyJo wanted them to do or she would not have left the truck keys. Daryl was pacing back and forth. He was going to the meeting spot. No one was going to stop him. The problem was, Michonne was the only person that knew where the meeting spot was. Since no one had been planning to go there, the actual location of the spot had not seemed important until now.

"I'm going to get RickyJo," he finally told the woman, "you comin' or not?" Michonne was hard to read. But finally she nodded her head. Jessica said she was going with them. Which meant Morgan too. Which didn't leave Rick with much of a team to raid the town with. That did not make him happy. Some more arguing started up, but Hershel put a stop to it by pounding on the table with one of his crutches.

"Go get them first, then the raid," he said. Rick finally nodded. He still thought this was a bad idea. But he was badly outnumbered by a lot of people that had no interest in listening to him. Strangely enough he found himself wishing RickyJo was there. The idea felt weird kicking around in his mind, since a few days ago he would have given just about anything to get her and her whole crazy hillbilly family out of there. Maybe she wasn't so bad after all.

Glenn, Maggie, Carol and all the kids stayed at the prison with Hershel. Beth seemed unhappy about being including in this group. Especially since no one even asked her what she wanted to do. She would have rather gone with Rick. But who was she fooling. She was no fighter. And she supposed maybe here she could be of some use.

They took two cars. Michonne drove the front one since she knew where they were going. They had to drive around the long way, so it actually took longer to drive than it would have to walk straight through the woods. But this way they had the cars in case they needed to make a run for it.

They stopped about a half mile out, so whoever was left a the meeting spot wouldn't see them coming. Once they were out of the cars, Daryl decided to piss on staying with the others. He started running. Once he got close, he slowed down, staying close to the sides of the buildings. He was breathing hard and thinking again about how he really ought to quit smoking.

It was clear by the time Daryl got a good look at the place that whatever had been going on here was long past over. There were dead walkers lying around everywhere. And live ones, snacking down on the bodies of a few men that had died recently. But no sign of RickyJo or Merle.

"Merle!," Daryl called out, hoping the meal they were having was enough to keep the walkers occupied. One of the doors of a ratty looking building nearby swung open, almost scaring him to death. Merle popped his head out. As soon as Daryl saw his face, he knew something was wrong.

"Where's RickyJo?," Daryl asked. He took a few steps closer. Close enough to see that inside the small room, Toby was covered in blood and hugging a very dead looking dog to his chest. The kid looked close to hysterics.

"He took her," Merle said. He was about at his wits end. He and Toby didn't have any weapons. The place was crawling with walkers. And everytime he tried to drag Toby away from the dog, the kid started screaming like it was the end of his life. He couldn't drag a screaming kid though the woods. And it didn't feel right leaving Toby here alone. Merle had been hoping that Daryl and Rick were already at Woodbury. Like they planned.

"Who took her?," Daryl asked.

"The fuckin' governor," Merle screamed, "he took RickyJo!"

TWD

Daryl shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Morgan stayed with Toby. The rest of them were inside Woodbury. Stuck watching and waiting now because they were afraid they no longer had the element of surprise. The governor had RickyJo. And there was no telling how much information he had gotten out of her already. He might be expecting them at any moment. They might be walking straight into a trap.

He felt like they had been watching and waiting for a long time. Too long. Hiding in a room that was being used as a food supply locker. Must not be many hungry people around since no one had come or gone from the place since they got there.

"What the fuck are we waiting for?," Daryl asked. He had been hoping he might be able to spot RickyJo, but these people obviously had her stashed somewhere.

There was a hispanic man that seemed to be on some kind of guard. He that kept walking back and forth in front of the spot where Daryl and Rick were hiding. The man leaned against the window and lit up a smoke. Then suddenly he was tossing it to the ground. A woman ran up to him. She looked very upset and she was not making a lot of sense. The woman was crying and sobbing. But Daryl clearly heard RickyJo's name mentioned through the glass. Rick tried to grab him, but Daryl had enough. He darted out the door of the place with his bow up. He pointed it at the hispanic man. But he yelled at the woman.

"RickyJo! Where is she?," he asked. The woman was acting like a complete idiot. She was babbling on about blood and murder.

"You're Merle's brother," the hispanic man said. Daryl nodded. He wasn't sure if that was good or bad at this point. It must have been good, since the man stared at him for another second and then lowered his gun.

"The governor's got her in his apartment," Martinez said. He was almost relieved these people showed up. They had took their sweet ass time about getting here too.

RickyJo had always been nice to Martinez. She took care of that horrible little kid too. The one the governor had been ready to drive out and drop off somewhere he was such a nuisance. When they had the shit for it, RickyJo would invite him over for dinner and make him chile rellenos. They were not as good as the ones his wife used to make, but they weren't bad either. She was good people.

When they brought her back here, Martinez figured the governor just wanted to talk to her. Turn her back to their side and have her help them get rid of that other group. Then he had seen the outfit the man had laid out for her. Like she was a common whore. And the look on her face. It made him sick to think about it.

"This way," Martinez said. Rick and Daryl exchanged glances. Daryl figured if the guy was going to shoot him, he would have done it already. Plus he had seen something in his face when he said that shit about the governor having RickyJo in his apartment. Like he was upset about it.

They walked quickly down the sidewalk, heading inside the third building. Daryl charged ahead.

"Last door on the left," the hispanic man told him. Rick was telling Daryl to wait but he was done listening to that shit. The door was hanging open about an inch. Daryl kicked it the rest of the way in. He had his bow up, pointing it into the room. He took in the scene and quickly lowered it.

The man that used to be the governor was lying dead on the floor. There was a high heel shoe sticking out of what used to be his one remaining eye. There was blood everywhere, and purple flowers scattered around like someone had thrown a vase of them on the floor and broke it. Come to think of it the entire place looked trashed. And it didn't all look like it was from whatever struggle had gone on in the room either.

RickyJo was sitting at the table with her feet propped up on another chair. Dressed only in a black bra and a very skimpy pair of black lace panties. She was covered in blood. The blood was everywhere. On the table. Smeared down the chair she was sitting in. All over her breasts and there was a lot of it smeared down one side of her face and neck. She had a fancy looking crystal drinking glass in her hand, half full of what looked like liquor. Probably whiskey from the smell of it. There was a large decantur of it on the table next to her. From the glossy look on her face, Daryl guessed this was not her first glass.

RickyJo turned and looked at him. Then she took another healthy sip from the glass in her hand and went back to staring at the dead man on the floor. Daryl swung his bow onto his back and closed the distance between them. There was a lot of blood on her. So he started checking her over for injuries.

"Don't worry," she said, "most of the blood ain't mine." Her voice sounded strange. Hollow and flat. Like the look in her eyes. And she was slurring her words.

Martinez took one look at the scene inside the room and headed right back out into the hall to throw up. Daryl tried to take the glass from RickyJo's hand, but she had a damn death grip on the thing. She stunk, just absolutely reeked of alcohol. Mixed in with the smell of all the blood, it was making Daryl feel sick to his stomach.

"I'm still drinkin' that," she informed him.

"I think ya done had enough," Daryl told her. He gripped her wrist with one hand and pried the glass out of her hand with the other. He threw the glass across the room. She looked like she might grab for the bottle so he chucked that too.

Daryl wiggled his arms out of his leather jacket and put it around her shoulders. Now that he was closer he could see that one of her earlobes had been ripped almost completely off. That was why there was so much blood on that side of her face and neck. She made no move to dress herself, but she didn't fight when Daryl lifted her arms and shoved them inside the sleeves of his coat, dressing her like she was a child.

Rick kicked at the governor, making sure the man was all the way dead. He was. So Rick turned his attention to RickyJo. Besides being fall down drunk, she looked like she might be in shock. He snapped his fingers in front of her face a few times. Then he waved one of his fingers around in front of her. That seemed to get her attention because she looked up at him.

"Hi Rick," she said, like she had only just noticed that he was there. She looked down at the dead man again and then back up at Rick. Somewhere in her drunken mind it must have registered that he was a cop. Because she gripped his wrist with one hand. With the other she pointed down at Phillip's dead body like she was ready to tattle on him for what he did to her. "He. Shot. My. Dog."


	29. Chapter 29

Five Minute Window

Chapter 29

Merle and Michonne located Andrea in one of the interrogation rooms while they were looking for RickyJo. She was a little dehydrated, but otherwise unharmed. Martinez took her to to see the doctor and they gave her an IV just in case.

After all the planning and big war talk, no fight between the two groups of people had happened besides the one that had taken place that morning when Merle and RickyJo had shot at the governor down at the meeting spot. For now it seemed like Martinez was in control of Woodbury. Which was good because he at least wasn't a loony bin nutcase that kept heads in fishtanks to stare at them.

Martinez offered to take RickyJo to see the woodbury doctor, but Daryl had insisted on taking her back to the prison and having Hershel look at her. So instead, Martinez offered them a truck to get back in. He spoke quickly with Merle and Rick before they left. They planned to give the dust a few days to settle. Then they were going to meet up and figure out what to do. Combing the two communties was on the table. At the very least they were going to talk about doing some trading.

RickyJo was too drunk to walk. Daryl had to pick her up and carry her. In the truck he held her on his lap, hoping she would pass out and sleep it off. But there was no such luck. She was quiet at least, only speaking up to ask for a cigarette. Daryl fished one out of his pocket and lit it for her.

Back at the prison, Jessica and Michonne took over. They propped her up on their shoulders and dragged her down to the shower area to get her washed up. RickyJo had been telling the truth about the blood. Most of it was not hers. But Jessica noticed her body was covered in fresh bruises. Including some nasty looking ones on her hips and the insides of her thighs. From the look on Michonne's face, she knew the other woman saw them as well. But she didn't say anything, she just gritted her teeth and shook her head.

RickyJo was half walked half dragged back up from the shower area. She had been forcibly dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, which she was more than happy to loudly express her displeasure about. _I can pick out my own clothes!_ Jessica deposited her cousin in Hershel's cell so the man could check her over for injuries. She had never seen RickyJo so drunk in her life. And that was saying something because Jessica had seen her drunk plenty of times. She couldn't believe the woman was still concious.

"She must be running on adrenaline," Hershel said once he got a whiff of RickyJo's breath. She looked up at him and then flopped down on the bed. Her hand came up and flapped around like she was trying to wave at him.

"Do you have any oxycontin?," RickyJo asked him.

"Yes."

"Can I have some?"

"No."

"Yer not very nice," RickyJo informed him. Jessica knew the situation was no joke. Her cousin had been attacked and possibly sexually assaulted. But she still had to turn her back to keep from laughing. God damn she was drunk.

"She a'right?," Daryl asked. He glanced inside the cell. At least RickyJo wasn't coated in blood anymore, which was an improvement.

"I think she'll live," Jessica told him, "she's trying to score pills from Hershel." Daryl shook his head. Really he thought Hershel ought to give her something to knock her ass out. She would feel better once she slept a while. Hershel spoke to them from inside the cell.

"The worst is her earlobe," he said, "I can make it better with a few stiches, but most of it is gone."

"Don't talk 'bout me like I'm not here," RickyJo told the man, "I'm a grown ass woman." Hershel apologized to her, somehow managing to keep a straight face. Then he informed her that he was going to stitch her ear up so it would heal better. RickyJo appeared to be feeling no pain, so he figured he might as well put the sutures in now. Daryl came in and sat with her to hold her head still while Hershel worked on her. Apparently getting patched up made her feel more chatty, because she started up a rather lively conversation with Hershel while he worked.

"When you get done can I have an oxy?"

"No."

"Ya look like Santa, but yer really a mean old sumbitch."

"Sorry you feel that way."

"If Merle was here, he would give me what I want."

"Well he's not here."

That was a lie. Merle was sitting outside. He was fresh out of oxys though. If he had any, he would have already taken them himself. RickyJo winced a little when Hershel stuck the needle through the worst of the damage.

"Wanna know somethin'?," she asked Hershel.

"I have a feeling I'm going to hear it no matter what."

"Rick had sex with Beth. And she was virgin before that. Toby stole her diary and read it."

Daryl snorted and almost choked. He was careful not to let go of RickyJo's head, but the rest of his body was convulsing with silent laughter. That was about the last thing in the world he expected to hear. He wasn't sure if it was even true or if RickyJo had made it up on the spot. Either way Hershel's face was fucking priceless.

"M'sorry Hershel," he told the old man. Hershel finished up the last knot and kindly suggested that RickyJo be taken back to her room and put to bed. Daryl scooped her up. But he wasn't sure where to take her. She didn't really have her own room. And he didn't want to take her to Merle's room. After a few hestitant steps, he headed for Michonne's cell and laid her down on the bunk in there.

Daryl was trying to decide if he should sit with her, or if it would be better if he left. If she was alone, he was hoping she might go to sleep. After what she had said to poor Hershel, he wasn't sure if he wanted to head what she had to say to him. Morgan and Toby showed up in the doorway and made his decision easy for him. RickyJo held her arms out for the boy and he went rushing in. She hugged him against her and let him cry into her shoulder.

"Oh Toby," she said, "it's okay." She smoothed one hand over his wild mass of hair while she patted his back with the other. "It's okay, he's dead now." She continued on with those words, repeating them like they were a chant. Then she added, "Don't worry, we will getchya a new puppy and then everythin' will be alright again."

When Daryl checked on them again, they were both fast asleep. Toby was facing out from the wall and RickyJo was cuddled in behind the boy with her knees tucked in behind his and both her arms wrapped around the boy. Daryl felt someone's presence behind him. It had to be Merle. No one else got in his personal space like that. But instead of fighting him, his brother threw a friendly arm around his shoulder. The situation with RickyJo was going to have to be dealt with eventually. But for now, they were brothers again.

"Ready to go?," Merle asked him.

"Huh?," Daryl asked. He was not aware that they had any plans to go anywhere. "Where we going'?" Merle glanced into the room again and then gave Daryl a big smile.

"I'll tell ya where we're going little brother, we're goin' dog huntin'."

 **** This chapter is going to mark the end of this part of the story. I have plans to write some more, but I think I am going to take a break and rewatch season 4 first. Thanks to anyone that followed, favorited or took the time to leave a review, you are all wonderful. ****


	30. Chapter 30

Five Minute Window

Chapter 30

 **** Here we go with part two of this story. It's getting to be gardening season here in my neck of the woods, so updates on all my stories are going to slow down a bit. I haven't gone anywhere and will still be writing and posting when I have the time. Thanks to everyone that took the time to leave a review. ****

Daryl woke up, his eyes slitting open to check how much light was streaming in before he fully committed to waking up. There were curtains hanging in front of his cell now, but he could see through the gap between them. Bright light was streaming in, and he could hear people bustling around. It was time to get up.

Before he swung his legs out of bed, Daryl rolled onto his stomach and held his pillow against his face, breathing in the smell of her. It had been a few months since the battle that turned out not to really be a battle with Woodbury. And a few months since that horrible fight RickyJo had gotten into with his brother. Daryl had been outside when it happened, so he had missed most of it. Thankfully. By the time he heard the yelling and came running in, Jessica and Morgan had already been dragging the two of them apart. Merle had a fat lip and RickyJo's shirt was ripped. They had been screaming the most terrible things at each other.

Since then the two of them had not been speaking to each other unless it was absolutely necessary. Merle had started spending more and more time at Woodbury. He still came back. Once or twice a week. But he had a room there that he was keeping most of his stuff in. Daryl wasn't sure how he felt about it. He felt like he ought to be happy. This was what he thought he wanted. But his brother just seemed so unhappy.

RickyJo had not gone back to the room she shared with Merle. She stayed with Michonne for a while. Until Andrea started coming back a few times a week. To spend the night. RickyJo didn't want to crowd them. So she moved in with Toby. This seemed to work out well for everyone. Especially Daryl.

Toby snored. So sometime in the night RickyJo would get sick of lying awake listening to the boy and come creeping up the steps on her dirty bare feet and climb into bed with Daryl. She was always gone by the time he woke up. Sometimes he wondered if she had ever really been there at all or if he had only been dreaming about her. That was why he liked to smell his pillow to see if she left her scent behind. Which she did. And he often found strands of her long hair tangled up in his blankets.

At first they had just slept together. She would curl up in his arms with her head on his chest and he would sleep like he hadn't since the dead got up and started walking. Then one night she had taken her clothes off and climbed under the covers with him naked. No warning. Just the sudden press of her naked flesh against him. Then her hand, squeezing him through the thin fabric of the boxers he liked to sleep in.

They made a different sort of love that night. Not the frenzied hurried kind they had in the treestand. Or the drunken sloppy sort they had that time in Mexico. This had been slow and almost gentle. Unrushed. That morning he woke up to find her smiling down at him as she rode his morning erection. Rolling her hips into his until she came undone.

She was still refusing to officially move her things into his room. But since she was sleeping with him everynight anyway, he decided to let it go for now. Daryl tried not to take it personally. RickyJo had always been independent. He told himself maybe she just liked having her own space. She really loved that scruffy little kid too. So it was also possible she just didn't want to leave Toby by himself.

TWD

Rick was laughing so hard that it was starting to hurt his sides. They had traded with Woodbury for a flock of chickens a little less than a week ago. Some of them were molting. And others were in some sort of chicken shock from the change in environment. He had no clue about that, but Hershel said it was normal. So the birds had not been laying.

RickyJo, Jessica, Beth, all the other girls and most of the kids had been checking the nesting boxes about every five seconds, hoping for an egg. It had become some sort of game. Like whoever found the first egg was the winner. And the first egg had finally been laid. RickyJo had found it. After thrusting it into the air like a trophy and letting loose a string of some of the dirtiest curse words Rick had ever heard, it was then determined that Hershel needed to be rousted from his bed in order to come down and bless the egg. And all the chickens of course. They couldn't be left out.

Toby and Carl had dragged the poor man down the hill in his pajama bottoms with his shirt most of the way unbuttoned. After a brief prayer, during which Hershel had been allowed to actually hold the most sacred egg in his hands, a general celebration ensued. Beth came bopping over, her cheeks pink from laughing and a big smile on her face. Rick scooped her up into his arms and kissed her on the ticklish spot behind her ear, making her giggle more.

"Did you see?," she asked, "when my dad got done prayin', RickyJo smacked his ass and screamed hell yeah. She's so crazy. I think she's drunk with egg finding power." Rick laughed. He had seen the girls dirty dancing with Toby and Carl, but he had missed the ass smacking. Hershel acted like RickyJo drove him nuts, but Rick had a feeling the man secretly enjoyed the attention. Especially since RickyJo went out of her way to bring Hershel back things she knew he wanted or needed whenever they went on runs. And she made that special salve for him that he liked to put on his leg in the spots where it was still healing.

RickyJo ran over, tripping and almost dropping the egg before anyone even got to eat it. Toby and Carl were tagging along behind her. She thrust the egg into Rick's face. Shoving it almost up his nose and telling him to smell that sweet chicken ass.

"Get that thing away from me," he told her, shoving at the woman, "it has chicken shit stuck on it." Beth had the foresight to have already scrambled out of the way. She was standing behind a row of peas laughing so hard she looked like she was about to pee her pants. She heard the sound of heavy dog breathing coming from behind her and turned to find Toby's dog digging up one of the tomato plants they had just got done putting in the ground. Beth smacked her hands together at the naughty dog.

"Snoop! STOP THAT! Bad dog!," she yelled. The dog glanced up at her before it took off across the yard like a bat of of hell, kicking up dirt behind its paws as it ran. Chips, that dog the governor shot, had been a good dog. Quiet and gentle. And well behaved. On the other hand, Toby's new dog was an absolute menace. It was ginger colored, and looked like some sort of pit bull mix. It had fluffy hair that stuck out around the sides of it's face and tall ears that pricked up, giving it a comical appearance. Toby had been given the task of naming the dog, which meant they were all now stuck with a fluffy ginger pit bull named none other than Snoop Doggy Dog. Beth supposed the name didn't matter much since all anyone ever called the dog was StopThat, DropIt or occasionally GetBackHere.

Snoop ran in and out of all the cells, chewing things to bits and ripping up blankets. He dug holes in the worst possible spots. Like under the wooden skids they were using to keep the piglets fenced in. If that wasn't bad enough, he had taken to shitting directly in front of the entrance to Daryl's cell. The dog also barked and howled. Not to warn them, like if a walker was coming. Just randomly. You would think everything was quiet and you were alone, then that damn dog would suddenly be right behind you, barking at full volume. He startled the shit out of Beth on a semi regular basis. And she swore that damn dog knew what he was doing. He did it the most when she had food in her hands, like he was trying to scare her so she would drop the food and he could snatch it up and take off with it.

"I swear I am going to shoot that dog," Rick mumbled under his breath. RickyJo had spotted Daryl and taken off in his general direction. Beth laughed a little more, watching the two of them together. After showing off her find, RickyJo grabbed the man by the hand drug him back inside the prison with her. Beth assumed she was going to cook the egg up for him, but anything was possible.

The kids were all poking through the nesting boxes of the coop, hoping to find another egg. Snoop was running around them in a wide circle, barking his stupid head off. Beth smiled again.

"Those poor chickens," she said. Rick pulled her close and she could fell his chest moving as he laughed. He pressed his lips to her forehead and his hand moved down to brush over her stomach. She quickly shoved his hand away.

"Not out here," she whispered, "someone will see." There was a specific someone she had in mind. Her father. It was bad enough her and Rick were shacking up, but now she was pregnant too. She wasn't even eighteen yet. Or married. Rick laughed and made another grab at her tummy, pinching at her sides to tickle her.

"I know something fun we can do," he suggested, "let's go tell your dad that you're pregnant." He started off in Hershel's general direction, but Beth latched onto his arm and dug her heels in like a tiny mule.

"Stop it Rick, have you gone crazy?," she hissed. Rick smiled and pulled her back into his arms.

"I was just kidding," he assured her, "but we should tell him soon. You need a medical care. And the longer we wait the harder it's going to be to tell'im." Beth hugged him back and nodded her head.

"Just not today," she pleaded. She had been using that excuse for the last three months. And it was getting flimsier by the day. Beth was a tiny woman and there was no where for the baby to grow expect out. She had been wearing baggy shirts to try and hide her rapidly expanding stomach, but that was only going to work for so much longer. When she was naked it was more than obvious what was going on, so she had to make sure to shower alone, which was a task all in itself since most of the woman here showered in the big shower room together to help save on water.

Rick let the topic go for the moment. But he decided if Beth didn't tell her dad by the end of the week, Rick was just going to tell the man himself. He cared for her, and had every intention of taking care of Beth and their baby. So he had nothing to be ashamed of. Hershel already knew they were sleeping in the same cell, so the news of a baby shouldn't come as too big of a shock to the man.

Rick lifted his hand and waved. Merle and Andrea were driving in through the gate in one of the pickup trucks. It looked like they had a bunch of plants bumping around in the back. They weren't due for a visit until the next day, but timing and appointments were one of the things that had gone the way of McDonalds and Starbucks. No one cared about things like that anymore.

Once the truck pulled up, Andrea hopped out and came walking over.

"We dug up all RickyJo's medicinal herbs," she explained, "no one in Woodbury knows what they are or what to do with them anyway, so she might as well have them back." Rick nodded. They had just built another herb garden and nothing was planted in it yet, so this was great timing. Hershel came limping over on his fake leg to take a look inside the back of the truck. He seemed excited by what he saw, pointing out a few plants he knew.

Rick noticed Merle was walking up the drive, heading inside the prison. That man was so strange. He insisted on hunting RickyJo down first thing every time he came here. But then once he spotted her, he would refuse to speak to her and carry on pretending he didn't see her there. The two of them had said some nasty words to each other, fighting over what happened the day she killed Phillip Blake. But what Rick couldn't figure out is why the man didn't just apologize. It was obvious that he was sorry. But women needed to hear the words. Rick knew that well enough from all the years he spent married to Lori. A few times he had come close to saying something to Merle about his situation, but once he figured out there was something going on between RickyJo and Daryl, he had decided to keep his mouth shut. If anyone deserved to be happy, it was Daryl.

TWD

Daryl came outside with the intention of smoking a cigarette, but was immediately assualted by RickyJo. Her cheeks were pink and she was smiling. A real smile, not one of that sad little half smiles she usually gave him when he asked her what was wrong. She showed him the egg and kissed him smack on the lips. The kissing was nothing new, but doing it out in the open in front of everyone was. He thought it would be embarrassing, but instead he found he rather liked it. Then she was dragging him back inside, intent on cooking him breakfast.

"You found the egg, you should eat it," Daryl told her. Of course RickyJo was having none of that. He didn't argue too much because first off he didn't want to ruin the fun she seemed to be having and secondly he was so hungry at the thought of eating a real breakfast that his stomach was growling. No one was around to scold him for smoking inside, so he lit up his smoke and puffed on it while he sipped on the coffee RickyJo had already warmed up for him.

She bustled around, peeling up a potato and putting the peelings in the compost bucket to be taken outside later and dumped. Once the pan was scorching hot, she fried the little chunks of potato up until they were crispy and slid them onto a plate. Then she cracked the egg open in the pan, cooking it just until the white was set before gently scooping it out of the pan to set it on top of the fried potatoes.

She came around the table and set the plate down in front of Daryl, ruffling her fingers through the short hairs on the back of his head. Jessica always cut his hair too short. She moved away, thinking about cleaning up the mess she made in the small makeshift kitchen. But Daryl caught her by the wrist and pulled her down on the bench seat next to him.

"Eat with me," he ordered. She smiled and let him pull her all the way down onto the seat then swung one leg over so she was straddling the bench. She propped up her chin on her palm with her elbow on the table and smiled at him.

"You need to be spoonfed too?," she teased. That made them both laugh and just to be silly she grabbed his fork and speared up a chunk of potato, dipping it in the egg before forking it into his mouth. He laughed, grabbing for the bottle of water he had sitting on the table next to his coffee.

"That shit is hot," he mumbled with the food still bumping around inside his mouth. After a swig of water he chewed and swallowed the bite of potato.

"Sorry," RickyJo told him, "I didn't mean to burn you." She leaned in close, pressing her mouth to his. _Let me kiss it better._ He grabbed her by the waist, pulling her across the bench and into his lap so her knees were resting on either side of his hips. She kissed him again, flicking the tip of her tounge across his lips before she dipped her tounge inside his mouth. His hands were moving up her waist, under her shirt. Searching out her breasts and grasping them, squeezing gently as his thumbs rubbed over her nipples, making them go hard as little pebbles inside her bra.

"Well isn't this cute." The voice came from a few feet away. And they both knew well enough who it belonged to without having to look. RickyJo slid back off Daryl's lap and sat down hard on the bench.

"What do you want Merle?," she asked the man. He was the one that broke things off with her. So if he thought he was going to tromp back in here and tell her what to do, he had another think coming. Maybe a few other thinks and a kick straight to the balls. He stomped over, noticing that his brother flinced away from him but RickyJo didn't. That meant she was still crazy angry enough not to be scared of him. Not that she had ever been scared of him in the first place. RickyJo always had that vibe about her, like she had faced up to bigger and badder than Merle Dixon in her life. That was why he liked her. He had a bunch of wildflowers in his hand that he had been holding behind his back. Merle slammed them down on the table next to her.

"That's all I wanted," he informed her. Then he turned and stalked off outside, mumbling curses under his breath. RickyJo stared at the small bundle of flowers and then looked back at Merle's form as he disappeared around the corner. She felt a little stunned. That was not at all what she had been expecting.

"Come on back and ruin my breakfast again real soon," Daryl grumbled. Fucking Merle. He had the worst timing known to man. RickyJo pulled Daryl close and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"Don't let him ruin it," she said, "I had to work hard to find that egg before everyone else." She smiled, but it was one of the ones that didn't go all the way up to her eyes. Then she rose up from the table and grabbed the bundle of flowers. Daryl figured she was going to toss them in the compost, but instead she pulled a mason jar down and filled the bottom with a bit of water.

"Yer keepin' those?," Daryl asked, the suprise and hurt obvious in his voice.

"Naw," she said. She would actually like to keep the flowers. They smelled good no matter who had given them to her. And they were pretty. But it wasn't worth upsetting Daryl. "I was gonna put 'em in Cassie and Desire's room. Thought they might like 'em." That made Daryl smile and he returned to eating his breakfast like nothing had ever happened.

RickyJo set the flowers on the small table in her neices' room. Then she leaned down to smell them. There was some queen anne's lace, bright blue bachelor's buttons and some cherokee roses, mixed in with some of the lilacs that grew around the fences on one side of Woodbury. Looking at them made her feel a weird mix of emotions. Sad and angry. And also confused. Why would Merle wait all these months and choose today to bring her flowers? He was a real pain in her ass.

She turned on her heel, heading outside after the man. He was going to explain himself to her if she had anything to say about it. When she was almost out the door she ran smack into Toby. The boy had tears in his eyes that he was wiping away with his shirt.

"What's wrong buddy?," RickyJo asked him. She held the boy against her, hugging him close. He must really be upset, because for once he didn't try to fight off her affections.

"Uncle Merle," Toby sobbed, "He told me and Snoop goodbye. He said he ain't comin' round here to visit no more."


	31. Chapter 31

Five Minute Window

Chapter 31

Michonne leaned over the map, crowding in close to RickyJo to get a better look. The most valuable thing they had gotten from Woodbury had come for free. A copy of the large map that the governor kept hanging in his apartment. He had been a psycho, but not a stupid one. The map was marked with all the places they had been. Where they had seen large groups of walkers. And even other spots that the man thought they might be able to hit up for supplies. Places that they had not had time to stop at, or that had been too overrun at the time. Martinez gave them a copy with the understanding that both groups would make an attempt to keep the other groups map updated with any new developments. It did no one any good for either group to go out on a run to somewhere the other group had already cleared.

"This looks like the best spot," Michonne said. RickyJo nodded her head in agreement. It was a larger grocery store that was circled in green. A note next to it said overrun. Which was actually a good thing since it meant that it had probably not been cleared by another group yet. Under the word overrun it said pharmacy. Which is what they needed. Jessica's younger daughter had asthma. And she was on the last half of her last inhaler. There were some herbal remedies RickyJo and Hershel were working on to give the girl daily to try and help with her breathing, but if she had a bad attack she was still going to need her puffer.

"You want to take the bikes?," Jess asked. RickyJo shook her head. The bikes would take up less gas but they wouldn't be able to bring back as many supplies either.

"The roads to get there are marked clear," she said, "lets just take the big truck." One of the armored trucks now belonged to the prison group. RickyJo had helped the governor get those trucks, so Martinez had agreed to let her have her fair share. The trucks were gas hogs anyway as far as he was concerned. He didn't know enough about trucks to know that she took the only truck that she knew ran on diesel. That was a lot easier to come by than regular gas. Jessica giggled, her cousin loved driving around in that giant beast of a truck and often looked for any excuse to do so.

"Who's going?," Rick asked. He was walking in from the shower area, one towel swathed around his waist, rubbing his hair dry with a second towel. "You want me to go with? I can get dressed." RickyJo waved him off.

"Me, Michonne, Jess and Sasha are going," she informed him, "we got this." The fact that the group was all women gave him a moments pause, but there was no denying that they were a formidable force. He nodded his approval and continued on his way back to his cell to get dressed. "We might not be back until tomorrow," RickyJo called after him. He gave a little wave above his head to let her know he heard her.

They would have taken some of the guys with them, but all of them seemed to be indisposed at the moment. Morgan and Jess never went out together. One of them always stayed with the kids. Daryl was still out hunting. He had been gone since early that morning and they didn't know when he might be back. Sasha's brother was dead weight. He couldn't shoot straight if his life depended on it.

RickyJo would have liked to take Glenn, but he and Maggie were at Woodbury for the week, helping with some sort of joint community gardening project. Toby had gone with them, or RickyJo might have brought him along. As much of a pain in the ass as he was, he was a damn good shot and was still small enough to squeeze into places that the adults couldn't. Once he had gotten them into a tightly locked office building by crawling through an air duct.

The girls separated, going to their own rooms to change clothes or grab weapons. Jessica wrapped her arms around her girls and Duane, then hugged Morgan tight against her, brushing her lips across his. To keep from arguing about it, they just alternated who left to go out on the runs. And this time it was Jessica's turn. So he didn't try to stop her, he just held her close and told her to be safe and hurry back to him.

RickyJo walked back outside, holding her hand up to shield her eyes from the bright sun while she pulled her sunglasses off the front of her shirt and slid them on. They were aviators with shiny lenses. As soon as Michonne saw her she started smiling. RickyJo cocked her hand up on her hip.

"What?," she asked the other woman.

"You are having a very Sarah Connor moment right now," she explained. RickyJo had a black tank top on, black skinny jeans. A thick belt hung from her hips. It was loaded with extra rounds of bullets and a large hunting knife. Her hair was in a ponytail and she had a huge gun in her hands. To top it off she had a lit cigarette dangling from between the fingers of her other hand. All RickyJo needed was Carl to come outside and start yelling in his squeaky ass puberty voice and she would be all set to fight the war against skynet.

RickyJo looked down and herself and started laughing along with Michonne. She hadn't thought much about it when she was getting dressed, but Michonne was right.

"Maybe I should save this outfit for Halloween," she suggested, "We can get you a yellow jumpsuit and you can go as the chick from Kill Bill." Michonne laughed at that and the two women headed over to the truck with their arms around each other.

TWD

The drive to the store had been longer than they expected. But it had been well worth the time. The girls set up a loud radio about a quarter of a mile away and propped the front door to the place open after they managed to break the locks. They were still loading stuff onto the back of the big truck when they started to lose the light.

Sasha pulled the truck up flush with the side of the building and they grabbed the emergency camping supplies and took to the roof of the store. Jessica and RickyJo hooked up the most redneck anti car theft device Sasha had ever seen. She wasn't sure how it worked, but it was built out of a stun gun, an old cell phone, a 9 volt battery and a few other strange devices she didn't recognize. They set it on the driver's seat and threaded the wires through to hook them around the metal on the driver's side door. Michonne wasn't sure exactly how it worked, but basically it shocked the shit out of anyone that was stupid enough to try and open the driver's side door.

"Want to try it out and make sure its workin'?,"RickyJo asked, elbowing Michonne in the ribs. Sasha leaned over and tapped against the handle with the tip of her gun. She jumped back and yelped when the sparks flew. The other women laughed as Sasha shook her hand out. That got her a little.

"Should we try to shut the radio off?," Jessica asked. RickyJo shook her head. Even if they wanted to, she didn't think they could get close enough, that thing was swarmed with walkers that had been attracted to the noise.

"The sound is drawing the walkers away," Sasha pointed out.

"I'm more worried about what else the noise might attract," Jessica said. She had not forgotten the last time she went on a run for medication. Before she met Morgan. She had gone alone and almost been snatched up by a rough looking group of men. Then she had unintentionally led them back to her family farm. They had killed her grandmother. She and her girls had barely made it out alive.

"We can sleep in shifts," Sasha assured her. RickyJo nodded her approval. Sasha was highly organized and unlike the rest of them she had military experience. When she and her brother had come to live at the prison, Jessica thought there might be trouble between her and RickyJo. Her cousin was used to being the top dog as far as the women went. She and Rick had gotten closer in the last few months. Between the two of them and a little advice from Hershel, they pretty much ran the group. When Sasha came in and started putting her opinion in on how she thought things should be done, Jessica expected there to be some sort of struggle for power between the two women. But so far, it had not come to that. Back at home, Sasha tended to differ to RickyJo's decisions and when they were out on runs, RickyJo did the same for her.

"Dibs on Messy Jessy," RickyJo teased, using the other woman's childhood nickname. She was looking forward to taking watch with her cousin. Back at the prison it seemed like they never got any alone time to really talk. RickyJo missed her. And she wanted her cousin's advice on the rather confusing situation she had gotten herself mixed up in.

"I see how it is," Michonne joked, "someone always has to make it racial." RickyJo laughed hard at that. The two of them started wrestling around a little, trying to grab each other up into a head lock. Jessica and Sasha side stepped around the two women and climbed up into the truck to start tossing the rest of what they wanted for the night up onto the roof of the building.

They drank warm fancy flavored water and ate some of the snack foods they had found inside the store for dinner. The conversation flowed easily between the women. Aside from Sasha, who was a little newer to the group, they all knew each other well by now. They played a game that was a group favorite, trying to think of the thing they missed most from their lives before the turn. The trick was to try and think of something that no one else had mentioned yet.

"Xanax and my hot tub," RickyJo said. That brought on some laughter. It wasn't a secret that she liked her pills. Nothing too heavy. Her poisons of choice were muscle relaxers and anything else that had a calming effect. She had been having nightmares since she was a child. About what happened to her before she went to live with her grandparents. The pills made her sleep dreamless.

Sasha had not failed to notice that the woman had pocketed a few choice items from the fully stocked pharmacy for herself. It didn't really bother her. They all had their vices. She had taken several bags of black licorice and a trashy romance novel for herself. Plus a bottle of Hennessy for her brother. Tyreese liked his liquor.

"I miss my son," Michonne said, her voice quieter and softer than normal. RickyJo crawled over and wrapped her arms around the woman. Michonne didn't mention her baby much, but she had told RickyJo about him one night when they were on night watch together.

"Michonne," Jessica complained, smacking at the other woman playfully and trying to lighten the mood, "You broke the rules of the game, no talking about people you miss." Michonne smiled through her tears and RickyJo moved away so Jessica could lean in and hug the woman tight in her arms.

"You have all of us," Jessica reminded her. "And we love you."

Sasha sat quietly, taking everything in. She had no idea that Michonne had lost a child. As far as she knew, Michonne was gay. Hearing that she had a child before was rather shocking. Sasha still had a lot to learn about these people. She had been wary of them at first, especially after the initial confrontation with Rick when he had thrown her and her brother out of the prison. It had been Tyreese's idea to come back to the prison to live, not hers. But the more Sasha got to know these people, the more she liked them.

Jessica was warm and loving. She always had a kind word for everyone. Her cousin RickyJo was more of an aquired taste. The woman much more outspoken, sometimes bordering on loud. But she was brave and she was smart. Sasha watched her with that boy she took care of. She could tell there was a lot of genuine affection between them. Sasha had been surprised to learn that they had not known each other before the turn. Michonne was strong. Intimidatingly strong. She was quiet around people she didn't know, but once she felt comfortable she had a funny off beat sense of humor that Sasha liked.

"I'm sorry about your boy," Sasha told Michonne. She felt lame. But she wanted to say something.

"Thank you," Michonne said, hugging Jessica one more time before she let go. She nodded towards RickyJo and Jessica. "They have first watch, so let's try and get some sleep."


	32. Chapter 32

Five Minute Window

Chapter 32

RickyJo and Jessica stayed awake and let the other two women sleep. There wasn't much to keep watch on, so they passed the time nibbling on chips that were not as stale tasting as they expected and splitting a small jar of outdated applesauce between them. They passed it back and forth, taking small bites off a little plastic tasting spoon to make it last longer. Jessica waited quietly for her cousin to start talking. She could tell the other woman had some things on her mind, but Jessica knew coaxing or questioning RickyJo to talk would only make her clam up.

They leaned back on their rolled up sleeping bags and stared up at the sky. The night was clear and the moon was almost full. There were old calenders back at the prison, but Jessica had started counting time by the phases of the moon. A few more days and she wll have missed her period for the second time in a row. She pushed thoughts of a baby out of her mind, trying for the moment to focus on something else.

The women had clean bottled water and food, and the night was warm enough that they had not bothered to make a fire. Jessica thought about making one, mostly just for the homey feel the soft crackling sounds brought with them. But extra light only attracted extra trouble. Starting a fire on this roof would make them visible for miles. And while they could handle themselves, she didn't want a fight if they didn't have to have one. The constant noise from the radio was enough.

Jessica slid closer to her cousin, so they were sitting with their hips touching. She reached for the other woman's hand and pulled it into her lap, opening it up and flattening it out with the back of the palm against her thigh. She pressed the tip of her pointer finger against RickyJo's and then traced down the length of her finger and into the lines on her palm.

"Which line is that?," RickyJo asked. Among her many talents, Jessica played at reading palms. Not seriously, it was more of a party trick or something she used an excuse to take the hand of a man she found attractive. The top line that curved down from between the first two fingers was the love line. The one below that was the head line, and the lowest one that curved around the pad of the thumb was the life line. But the one Jessica was tracing down the center of her palm with the tip of her finger was the line of fate. Lots of little scars and lines jagged across RickyJo's palm, making it harder to tell where the lines started, stopped, and intersected each other.

"Your fate line faded," Jessica murmured, "it doesn't start now until it hits your heart line."

"What does that mean?," RickyJo asked. She didn't much believe in fortune telling, but she was still curious. Jessica leaned over to rest her head on RickyJo's shoulder.

"I don't remember anymore," Jessica admitted. That made them both smile and RickyJo pulled her hand back so she could wrap her arm around her cousin's shoulders.

"Well that's a big help," she whispered before she turned her head and planted a kiss on top of Jessica's head. They sat in comfortable silence for a while. RickyJo twirled a piece of Jessicas wiry hair around her finger and thought about what her cousin said. That her fate line had faded. She had always believed that fate was something only weak people believed in. If you were strong enough, you could carve your own path in the world. But now she wasn't so sure.

Rick knowing Morgan. Jessica ending up with him. Them finding each other again. It seemed like too much to be just a coincidence. But if it was fate, that meant there had to be a point or a purpose to all this, and RickyJo wasn't conviced that there was.

"What's the point?," RickyJo said, lifting one hip so she could reach in her pocket for her smokes.

"The point of what?," Jessica asked. She pulled the pack of cigarettes away from her cousin. RickyJo used to smoke once in a while, mostly pot. But the cigarette smoking was a rather disgusting habit she had picked up off Merle and Daryl. RickyJo reached over and took the pack back, but instead of lighting up, she stuffed them back in her pocket. Jessica hated it when she smoked.

"Nothing I guess," RickyJo mumbled. She thought Jessica was going to press her, but instead the woman sat up and turned around to start poking through her bag. She pulled out a wide tooth comb and moved around behind her cousin, sitting down on top of RickyJo's pack. With a practiced hand, she slid a finger under the hair tie that was holding her hair back and pulled the elastic out. Then she started combing. Getting the knots at the bottom out first and working up so it wouldn't pull too much at the scalp.

RickyJo tucked her legs in, so she was sitting indian style with her hands in her lap. She loved having Jessica comb her hair. She closed her eyes, enjoying the gentle tug at the roots of her hair. Then the hard press of the edge of the comb as Jessica started at her hairline and ran the comb down the middle all the way to the nape of her neck, splitting it in half so she could braid it into pigtails.

"Gone tell me what's up?," Jessica finally asked. RickyJo just grunted. Another bad habit she had picked up off the guys. Or more specifically Daryl. He was the grunter. Jessica held back the urge to press her. And it paid off when she was about half way done with the first braid and RickyJo started talking.

Once she started, it was like she couldn't stop. She told Jessica everything. Starting with everything that happened back at the quarry. She spoke the way RickyJo always spoke when she was talking about something bad that happened to her. Detached and clinical, like she was talking about everyday things that happened to someone she didn't even know. Jessica heard a little hitch in her breathing when RickyJo told her about how she got pregnant and decided not to have the baby. She resisted the urge to rub her hand over her own stomach, thinking about what she would do if Morgan didn't want to be a father to the baby she thought might be growing inside her. The story didn't get much better after that and Jessica had a hard time just listening and not interrupting to throw her arms around the other woman.

"I made such a mess of things," RickyJo said once she was finished. She thought telling Jessica everything might make her feel better. Maybe make things more clear. But she didn't really feel that way. This is why she stopped going to therapy. Talking about things never really made her feel better. Quite the opposite, she felt worse. Like she had relived all of it all over again. Sometimes it was better to just stuff all that horrible shit away in a little box and never open it again.

"You didn't make a mess of things," Jessica told her. She was tempted to say something mean that she wouldn't be able to ever take back once it came out of her. That Merle and Daryl had been turning everything in their lives into a pissing contest since before RickyJo even knew them and that she was just another prize in some strange competition between them. But she knew that was only partly true. That was where some of the possessive anger was coming from. And Jessica wasn't totally convinced that wasn't the reason that Merle had been in such as hurry to get RickyJo to marry him when they had been alone together. So that he could claim possession of her. But she knew there were some genuine feelings behind all that. From both men. What was really going on was three people that loved each other were fighting. The fact that not a single one of them had ever had a functional relationship in their entire lives probably wasn't helping.

"What do you think I should do?," RickyJo asked.

One minute Merle was refusing to speak to her, and the next he was bringing her flowers. And she had already wasted most of her adult life trying to figure Daryl out. He said all that shit about being in love with her that day in the tree stand and then never brought any of it up every again. Like it never happened. Even considering trying to figure out what he was thinking made her head pound. Knowing Merle was all by himself at Woodbury while her and Jess and Daryl and the girls were all together at the prison made her heart hurt. She felt like no matter what she did it seemed to blow up in her face. If there was one thing that Jessica knew, it was men. She had to have the answers.

Jessica twisted the elastic around the end of one long braided rope of hair and started on the other side, pulling each section through carefully to keep the ends from tangling.

"I think you need a haircut," she said. She thought RickyJo would laugh, but instead the woman caught Jessica by the wrist and turned her head, making the beginning of the second braid fall down loose. She looked up, unshed tears in her eyes and teeth marks on her bottom lip where she had been biting it until she tasted the metallic tang of her own blood. Her hair was pulled back and Jessica could see the ear where most of the lobe was missing. That was the one part RickyJo had left out of her story. What happened that day when she had been alone with that sick twisted weirdo. She never spoke one word about it to anyone. Not even Merle. And RickyJo always told him everything. That's what had kicked off that nasty fight the two of them had.

Jessica reached over, grasping the scarred end of her cousin's ear and rubbing her thumb back and forth over the red angry looking flesh. It healed well, and the scar would fade in time, but for now it still looked fresh and painful.

"What happened that day?," Jessica asked her. RickyJo pushed her hand away from her ear and shook her head.

"Nothin' good."

That was all she would say. One more secret to stuff down and sit on.

"You're not going to tell me what to do are you?," RickyJo asked. Jessica knew she was changing the subject, but she decided it was for the best. While she felt her cousin might feel better if she talked about whatever happened to her, Jessica wasn't sure if she wanted to know the details. Whatever happened, that man was dead and RickyJo was alive. That was what was important.

Jessica adjusted RickyJo's head and started braiding her hair again. She thought about the question. She wasn't going to tell RickyJo who to pick. But that didn't mean she wasn't going to give her opinion on the situation. She had been asked for it, after all.

"Actually, I am going to tell you what to do," Jessica announced, using the base of her hand to hold the braid tight as she combed a tangle out with the pinky on her opposite hand. She paused a moment, making sure she had her words straight in her mind before she said them. "Don't let them make you choose between them if you don't want to." She thought about how much she loved her daughters. She could never pick between them. Maybe love was like that sometimes.

TWD

A little more than halfway through the night, RickyJo and Jessica woke Sasha and Michonne up so they could take watch. Michonne smiled as she watched them climb into one sleeping bag together, RickyJo tucking her longer legs in behind Jessica's and wrapping her arm around the woman. Like two small children. It wasn't long before they were both asleep.

Sasha and Michonne made some quiet conversation but that eventually faded out. Michonne got her sword out and started the rhythmic motion of sharpening it. The activity always calmed her and helped her to clear her mind. Once she was finished, she leaned back and watched the light from the rising sun paint colors across the shy. Sasha was pacing around the rooftop, actually keeping watch like none of the rest of them had really bothered to do. She kept stopping at the same corner and staring into the woods on the far side of the parking lot like she had seen something there. Michonne was watching her so closely, she almost didn't hear the electric snap of RickyJo's car handle booby trap being set off.

RickyJo must have heard it, since suddenly the woman was leaping from her sleeping bag like a deranged jack in the box. Jessica was rolled out onto the cold asphalt of the rooftop. She cursed at RickyJo, who conpletely ignored her as she grabbed for her bow and an arrow.

"We got one!," she announced with more excitement than Michonne felt the situation called for. It was like she was fishing and finally got a bite on her line.

"It was probably just a walker," Michonne told her. She did grab for her handgun just in case.

"Walkers don't use doorhandles," RickyJo called back.

Before Michonne could stop her she was over the edge of the roof and climbing down onto the roof of the truck. Michonne had no choice but to follow after her. Unlike RickyJo she took a good look over the edge first. There was a thin looking black man on the ground near the driver's side of the truck. He was holding his hand and moaning. RickyJo was hollering at him, telling him that's what he got for trying to steal their truck. Then she leaped down onto the ground and kicked at the man a little with the toe of her boot. He pulled a gun out, but RickyJo snatched it away from him and tucked it into the back of her pants. She kicked lightly at the man again before she tipped her head up to look at Michonne.

"He's drunk as a skunk!," she announced. She leaned forward and sniffed at the man. "And he stinks like one too!," she added.

By this time Sasha had heard the commotion and joined Michonne in peering over the edge of the roof. Michonne looked ready to laugh as she watched RickyJo poke at the drunken man a few more times with the toe of her boot. Sasha just shook her head and swung a leg over the edge of the roof to climb down.

The man made an attempt to get to his feet, which didn't go very well since as soon as his ass was in the air, RickyJo booted him in it and sent him sprawling back down onto the pavement.

"Stop that!," Sasha told her firmly.

"He was trying to steal our truck," RickyJo shot back. Then she stepped back a little and let the man alone.

"Didddna know it was yers," the man slurred. RickyJo snorted. Like he would have cared if he did. Sasha shot her another dirty look and tried to help the man up onto his feet. He managed to get into a standing position before he puked all over the front of her. Sasha turned her head, trying to breathe through her mouth and ignore the cackling laughter coming from next to the truck. RickyJo laughed, but when it looked like the man was going to fall down again and take Sasha with him she darted over and grabbed him by the back of the shirt like he was a naughty kitten. Between the two of them, the women managed to wrangle the drunken man into a sitting position on the back of the truck. Sasha stepped back, looking like she might add some more puke to the muck she was already covered in.

RickyJo clapped her hands in the man's face. Then she leaned in close, wrinkling up her nose.

"Hey you!" Once she had his attention, she told him, "Do not puke in my fuckin' truck. You understand?" The man nodded. Now that the contents of his stomach had been emptied, he seemed slightly more aware of his surroundings. RickyJo turned and looked at Sasha. "What in the hell has he been drinkin?," she asked. The puke smelled sickly sweet and it was neon green. RickyJo grabbed for the pack that was on the man's back. He didn't bother to fight her for it. She yanked it open and looked inside. Then she showed it to Sasha. There were some useful items inside, but mostly it was stuffed full of nothing but bottles of cough syrup.

RickyJo held up a bottle and snapped her fingers in the man's face.

"How much of this did ya drink?," she asked. The man simply shrugged. He had no idea. Usually he just drank until he passed out.

By this time, Michonne and Jessica were tossing the packed bags down into the truck. Jessica climbed down and wiggled through the back window to turn off the electric shock security system. Sasha got the man some crackers and a bottle of water. He thanked her and told her his name was Bob. A few walkers had wandered out of the woods, attracted by the noise. RickyJo shot one with her bow and stabbed the closer one with her knife. Michonne took out the other two with her sword.

"What are we going to do about him?," Michonne asked, gesturing towards the man now that they were far enough away that she didn't think he could hear her.

"Well we can't leave his drunk ass out here," RickyJo said, "he'll be dead in five seconds." She chewed at her lip. "We could stick him back inside the store." The man might be nice. He might be a psycho killer. But what RickyJo knew was he stunk and he was puking and she didn't want his puking stink in or on her truck.

Before they could say anything else, Jessica was honking the horn on the truck. She was pointing towards the other side of the parking lot. There was a group of men heading in their direction. Six or seven of them at least. And unlike Bob the cough drunk clown, they did not look friendly. RickyJo and Michonne ran for the truck. Michonne and Sasha dragged Bob further back into the cab and sat down next to him. RickyJo ran at the driver's side, leaping in and twisting the keys in the ignition. The truck stalled once. Then fired up. The men started running when they realized they had been spotted, and they were almost on them. A grey haired man was out in front. His fingertips grazed the doorhandle as RickyJo slammed her foot down on the gas. The men had their guns up, but they didn't fire at the retreating truck. Once she knew they were far enough away, RickyJo slowed down and Jessica hollered back to make sure the people in the back were alright. They were. Something about those man had given her a sick feeling in her stomach.


	33. Chapter 33

Five Minute Window

Chapter 33

RickyJo nudged the straps of her pack down her shoulders and wiggled out of them before slinging it up onto the top bunk. She bumped into a discarded sneaker and swung her leg, sending the offending item sliding back over to Toby's side of the cell. Toby was as much of a slob as most boys his age. RickyJo didn't really mind unless his slob mess started encroaching on her space, which wasn't hard to do in the tiny room they were sharing. Her first thought was that she ought to try and encourage him to clean up after himself when he got back from Woodbury. But then she changed her mind and grabbed for her laundry basket and started tossing his dirty items in with her things. If he didn't want her touching his crap, then he shouldn't have left it lying all over the floor.

His bedding was on the unpleasant side of ripe, and she tried not to breathe while she stripped it from his bed. When she snatched up his pillow, RickyJo found it was oddly heavy. Pulling off the case, she turned it around in her hands until she found the opening he had slit in the seam. Reaching in, she pulled out several expensive looking watches and a small pile of even more expensive looking jewelery. Her lips turned up at the corners as she shook her head at the small stash. Toby had good taste at least, she would give him that. Once of the rings had a huge green stone in it that looked real and had to be worth a small fortune if it was. At least in the old world. Now it was nothing more than a sparkly paperweight.

Gathering the small pile of items up, RickyJo placed them carefully back into the stuffing of the pillow where she found them. She thought she might try and trade with someone for a second pillow for the boy, sleeping on all that lumpy junk every night couldn't be comfortable for him. Once she gathered the rest of the laundry into her basket, RickyJo turned towards the door of the cell to find Carl and Duane shuffling around nervously, blocking her path.

"What's a matter?," she asked the boys. Carl shuffled his feet some more, kicking at the metal bars of the cell. Duane was the one that answered her.

"Somethin's wrong with one of the pigs," he informed her.

"Hershel look at it yet?," she asked the boys. They both shook their heads.

"He's in a council meeting," Carl added, speaking up from under his hat. RickyJo nodded. She shooed the boys out of her way and set the basket outside the door of her cell. Then she let them lead her out towards the small pen they kept the pigs in. She figured she would take a look at the animal, if it seemed more serious than she was able to deal with, she could always go get Hershel. Unlike the boys she was not afraid to interrupt a council meeting. Sasha and Jessica were in there telling everyone about the men the women spotted while they were out on that run and trying to plan another run to go out and clear the rest of the store. Nothing that couldn't be interrupted for a sick animal.

Carl loosened the bungee cords and swung one of the pallets open just wide enough for RickyJo to slip inside the pig pen. There was fresh bedding down, but she was still glad she hadn't changed out of her dirty run clothes yet. The boys were pointing and gesturing at a small piglet that was lying down in the far corner. The other piglets scurried out of her way as RickyJo stepped through in her boots. Daryl and Rick had caught most of them out in the woods and they hadn't become much friendlier since then. Which was really for the best. They were raising the pigs for food, not pets. The more attached people got to them the harder it would be to slaughter them when the time came. Killing animals for food was nothing new for RickyJo, she had grown up on her grandparents farm, but it still wasn't something that she enjoyed doing.

"What's wrong with her?," Duane asked, darting around to the other side of the enclosure to peek over the top of the wooden pallet that made up the pig pen. RickyJo smiled up at the boy as she crouched down next to the animal.

"Don't know, I haven't even looked at'er yet," she told the impatient boy. Carl and Duane had been given the job of caring for the piglets, a job they took very seriously. It was almost comical how worried they were about the pigs. Squatting down further, RickyJo reached her hand out and laid it on the animal's side. The pig felt hot. Too hot. As soon as she felt that she knew the animal might be sick. But RickyJo hoped it was just overheated. She sent the boys running off to fill a plastic baby pool with water for the rest of the piglets to cool off in while she hoisted the sick piglet up into her arms and headed out of the pen with it. She figured she would take it inside where it was cooler. Either way they had to get it away from the rest of the pigs in case it was contagious.

Balancing the pig's weight on her hip, she headed inside and asked Beth for some of Judith's baby asprin. She forced a dose of the sickly looking purple fluid down the pig's throat before hauling it off to her room. Beth appeared in the doorway with the large mail tub that had served as Judith's basinet. She had an amused smile on her face as she watched RickyJo with the animal. Beth swore the woman had a mommy switch inside her that she turned on and off at will. And right now it was on. She was even talking a little baby talk to the piglet, smiling down at it with a soft look on her face that was so unlike her normal expressions. Beth saw her look at Toby and her nieces with that look sometimes. Usually when she thought no one was watching her.

RickyJo lined the box with an old blanket and placed the small pink pig inside. She put her hand on it, feeling to see how hot it was, then got up and marched past Beth to the kitchen, grabbing a few ziplock baggies and filling them with ice from the freezer that ran on power from the solar panels outside. These were placed in the box with the pig to hopefully bring it's body temperature down. She also put a small dish of water inside. The piglet ignored it, but RickyJo hoped soon enough the little baby would be feeling well enough to have a drink.

RickyJo stroked her hand over the pig one more time. The hair on the back of her neck prickled up and she knew she was being watched. She spun and looked up to find Beth was gone from the door to her cell. Daryl was standing in the place where the girl had been. He looked rumpled and dirty, having just gotten back from the hunting trip he had gone on. The woods closest to the prison fences were hunted out. Which meant they were having to go futher and further away to find good hunting ground.

"Whatcha got there?," he asked, ticking his head towards the mail bin.

"Sick pig." RickyJo stood up and drifted across the small space to wrap her arms around his neck.

"Pig huh? Should fit right in with Toby," Daryl joked. He noticed RickyJo looked dressed for the road. She was even wearing her gun belt, which she didn't usually wear around the prison. He felt a flush of disappointment at the thought of her leaving so soon. He had been gone two days and was looking forward to having her around to warm his bed when he got back. "Goin' somewhere?," he asked, hugging her back and pulling her closer so he could press a soft kiss to her lips.

"Already got back," she mumbled, parting her lips to accept his seeking tounge. He kissed her deeply for a moment, forgetting that they were standing in front of her room and not inside it, his hand wandering down to grip the curve of her ass through her snug jeans. Michonne was walking by on her way to the kitchen and she let out a loud whistle. Daryl jumped back like he had been caught doing something a lot dirtier than a little kissy face. RickyJo laughed at him.

"Got some wild turkeys on ma hunt," he said, bringing one hand up to his mouth when he chewed at the edge of his thumb, "wanta help me pluck 'em?" The question made her giggle more. She had a high pitched girly laugh that had not changed as she matured into a woman. It always sounded funny to Daryl when it came out of her. Like she was laughing with someone else's voice. He knew if she really got laughing hard she would start snorting and gasping for air. The memory of that drifted into his mind with a blanket of sadness over it, since Merle was the one that used to make her laugh like that. He would do it on purpose, to try and make her snort. The more determined RickyJo would be to ignore him, the funnier it was. Merle was hard to ignore.

"Ya sure know how to romance a girl," RickyJo said, making herself laugh harder. Daryl pushed the thoughts of his brother out of his mind for the moment and let himself laugh along with her instead.

TWD

They sat together, elbows bumping occasionally as they plucked the feathers from the turkeys. Every so often, RickyJo would look up from her bird to smile at Daryl. They were used to working together and the silence was comfortable between them. Once the meeting was done, Jessica came out to help them pluck the remaining birds. She let them know what had been decided in the meeting. A larger group was going back to the store where they had seen the men. That way there would be enough people that some could stand guard while the rest loaded as much as they could into the waiting vehicles. RickyJo could sense Jessica was waiting for her response so she nodded her head in approval. Jess got nervous when she had to speak for her family group at the council meetings. She would rather her cousin just take on that particular task herself, even though RickyJo had assured her numerous times that she trusted her judgement completely.

"Sounds good to me," RickyJo said, taking her hand off the turkey she was working on to set her hand on Jessica's shoulder. Jessica finally smiled. Then she grabbed up another bird and started yanking out the feathers, tossing them into the large basket Carol had set in front of them for that purpose.

The kids came out and helped Morgan build a fire in the ground oven. The fire would burn down until it went out. Then they would place the plucked birds inside and cover the top up with a large steel door and a layer of dirt to keep the heat in. In the morning, the birds would come out of the oven so tender the bones would slide right out of them. Daryl got lucky and happened upon an entire flock of the stupid fat birds. Since the turn, domesticated turkeys had returned to the wild and mated with their wild cousins, making the offspring fatter and slower. He had left his crossbow on his back and fired a spray of buckshot at them with a gun, taking down six birds at once. Since the deer hunting had been unlucky, Daryl was happy he had something substantial to show for his efforts. Keeping everyone fed around this place was worse than a full time job.

With the promise of a large morning meal, Jessica mixed up a large salad of mixed garden greens that they passed around, all eating out of the same large bowl. Occasionally, Carol would get some people together and plan a large meal that the entire prison group ate together. But more often than not people broke off into smaller family groups to eat. Their group sometimes included Michonne, but on this particular night she had gone to eat with Sasha and Tyreese. Probably because he was cooking. Tyreese was one of the few men around the camp that seemed to enjoy making dinner, and he was a great cook too. The collard greens he made were so tasty, people requested them at the large group meals.

RickyJo sat with her nieces on either side of her, sharing a bag of gummy bears that she had picked up the run. Daryl and Duane sat close together, sopping up the last of the dressing in the salad bowl with little bits of mostly stale bread. Once they were done, RickyJo tossed them the rest of the bag of candy while Jessica ordered her girls inside to brush their teeth.

Instead of heading to her own room and sneaking up to his later, RickyJo caught Daryl by the hand and let him lead her inside to his room. She stopped in the doorway with a smile on her face, looking a bit like the cat that got the canary. He noticed she was glancing behind him into the room, so he turned and followed her gaze. On his pillow there was one of those packaged boxes of liquor. The box was a distinct purple color and contained a bottle of crown royal and two drinking glasses.

"Was going to bring you like five of those but Sasha said we ought to get food first and come back for the non-essential items later," RickyJo said, the smirk still plastered on her face. Daryl grinned.

"I wish I had somethin' to give you," he said, looking down at the gift in his hand and then flicking his eyes back up at the woman in the doorway. She was leaning against the doorframe, one leg bent so the heel of her boot was resting on the bottom rung of the bars to his cell. RickyJo had washed her hands and face before they ate but she was still wearing the black boots and clothes she had worn out on the run. Her hair was pulled back into two tightly braided pigtails. With the masculine attire, girly hairdo, and freshly washed face, she came off looking like a strange mix of tough and innocent at the same time. Her tank top hung low enough that the creamy tops of her breasts were showing. There was a light sprinkling of freckles across them from the sun.

"I know somethin' you can give me," she said, her voice dropping lower as she put her boot back to the floor and entered his cell. She pulled the sheet curtain closed behind her and approached him slowly, reaching out her hand and tracing the tips of her fingers down. Starting at his shoulder and ending at the cardboard box he was holding in his hand. He swallowed hard, his mouth suddenly full of spit. "A drink," she said.

"Huh?," Daryl asked, having totally forgotten about the alcohol he was holding in his hands. RickyJo tapped on the box in his hands.

"A drink," she repeated, "its what you kin give me?" Since he was still staring at her with his mouth open like a codfish she added, "Yer holdin' a box of booze in yer hand."

Daryl looked down at the purple box in his hand. He thought about opening it up and pouring them drinks, then changed him mind and tossed it on the top bunk of the bed behind him and pulled RickyJo into his arms instead.

"Got somethin' better than a drink," he informed her. His arms circled around her waist as he pressed his mouth down on hers. She yeilded to him immediately, which almost made him stiffen up. She had been going tense and scared in his arms for so many years, it still felt unsettling for her to be so eager for him. He often had to open his eyes and take a peek to assure himself that it was in fact RickyJo he had in his arms. Pulling back for just a moment, Daryl looked at her upturned face before pressing his mouth to hers again.

His hands roamed down, gripping the curve of her ass like he had been doing earlier when Michonne had interupted them with her cat calling. He ran his hands over her gently at first, then dared to grip her a little harder, pulling her hips flush against his. She hummed and fisted her hands into his shoudlers, pulling him in so that her breasts were flattened against the hard planes of his chest. They kissed, tounges sliding and teasing. When his hands moved up to start yanking at the clasp of her bra she stepped back and pushed his hands away. He was going to break the hooks, pulling at them like that. And she liked the bra she had on.

"Just don't want you rippin' it," she teased when she saw he was starting to look concerned because she had pushed away from him. They had been having a assorted sexual relations for the last few months, but this was the first time their interactions had been initiated by Daryl. He was usually content to let RickyJo take the lead, but tonight he wanted her too much to wait her out.

He smiled and bit at his lower lip, his eyes going darker once she pulled her tank top and bra off over her head and tossed them up where he had thrown the bottle of whisky. He yanked his own shirt off and pulled her back into his arms, kissing her briefly on the mouth before he headed lower. Leaving a hot trail behind, he ended up on his knees in front of her, pulling at the zipper on her jeans as his tounge flicked into her belly button. Her hands were twining into his hair as he raked her underwear down her thighs along with her pants.

The hair between her legs was softer and slightly darker than the hair on her head. She kept it trimmed, but not waxed like it had been back before the turn. He never said anything, but he preferred her the way she was now. More natural and less perfectly groomed. He kissed the star tattoo on her hip and ran the tip of his tounge across her as he moved to kiss the center of the other one. That was when he saw it.

"What in tha fuck?" His words came out more surprised than angry, though he was feeling plenty of both emotions. There was a short list of things he didn't like to encounter on the private area of a woman he was about to go down on, but seeing his brother's name branded there was a fucking new one.

"What's wrong?," RickyJo asked, taking a wobbly step back. She looked down at herself, trying to figure out what was so horrible it would cause Daryl to recoil from her like she had the plague. She was in bad need of a shower, but so was he. Now she was worried she smelled really foul or something.

Daryl grabbed her by the hip. He pulled her back over and leaned in close to her, like he was studying something on her body. Then he poked at the tattoo on her hip bone.

"What. Tha fuck. Is that?"

RickyJo looked down. Daryl was pointing at the smallish tattoo she had gotten while she was living in Woodbury. _Oh fuck._ She had completely forgotten that she and Merle had gotten drunk one night and decided it would be a grand idea to tattoo their names on each other. She had put her name on his ass and had a good laugh about it. _Yer ass is mine now._

Daryl had seen her naked a few times since then, but it must not have been in this much light or he just hadn't noticed until now. She guessed she should have warned him about the tattoo, but she had pretty much forgotten it was there. She had a shitload of tattoos and which ones she had where didn't exactly consume her every waking thought.

"It's nothin'," she said, "just a stupid tattoo." She thought about pointing out the fact that she and Daryl had several tattoos done together. Not matching, but they had them on the same spots on both their bodies. But somehow she didn't think that was going to help.

"Nothin"?," he asked, "ya got ma brother's name branded on yer damn pussy."

With that she pushed his hands away from her and backed up, leaning down to yank her pants and underwear back up. Covering up the offending markings. She thought about stepping around him to grab her shirt and bra, but changed her mind. Instead RickyJo covered her breasts with her hands and stormed out of the room.

Rick and Beth were standing outside their cell bouncing Judith around. RickyJo ignored their stares and stomped into her room. She grabbed under her pillow for the shirt she slept in and pulled it down over her head. In the process she almost tripped over the mail crate with the baby pig inside. She had totally forgotten the animal was even in her room. Kneeling down, she set her hand down over the pig. The animal felt much cooler, which relieved her at first. Maybe the poor thing really had just been overheated. Then she realized the piglet wasn't breathing.


	34. Chapter 34

Five Minute Window

Chapter 34

 **** Thanks to everyone that took the time to leave a review. I have inspiration pictures up on tumblr under the same pen name GillyFlower34. This pairing in this story is a love triangle, but if you are strictly team Merle I have a new story up called Red River Blue that is a Merle/OC pairing. As always read, enjoy and review. ****

His face was red and she knew it would be even redder if he wasn't so dark complected. Toby was on the floor, flopping around like he had some sort of horrible seizure disorder. He was screaming and hollering, making the biggest scene possible. Once he started kicking off, everyone had cleared the communal eating area and headed outside or back to their own cells to finish eating in peace. Everyone but Jessica. She was leaning against the doorframe, watching the show with her arms crossed loosely under her breasts. Having two girls herself, she knew the best way to end this was for RickyJo to leave and ignore the boy until he started acting like a normal human being again. Of course RickyJo was not doing that. Instead she was leaning over the boy, trying to reason with him.

"Toby come on," she pleaded, "you were just there two days ago." She leaned down and grabbed at Toby's arm, attempting to haul the boy up onto his feet. "Come on Toby, stop acting like such a baby and I'll make ya some fried spam and eggs." Jessica laughed into her hands, trying to pretend she was coughing. Bribery was another terrible idea. And the suggestion that he could be placated with food only sent Toby off screaming again. RickyJo jumped back and plugged her ears until he stopped.

"I don't want yer dirty ole fucking spam, I WANT TO SEE MY UNCLE MERLE!," the boy hollered.

"Toby, come on," RickyJo pleaded again, "Michonne said she would take you in a few days when she goes to visit Andrea." That was a lie. RickyJo had begged Michonne and the woman had told her she wasn't taking that fucking kid anywhere. Not even for all the chocolate left in the world. Last time she drove Toby to Woodbury, he yanked at the wheel and almost crashed them and then Snoop had taken a runny liquid diarrhea dog shit all over the backseat. Never again.

"YER A LIAR!," Toby screamed, "that ugly ole bitch said she ain't neva takin' me anywheres ever again!". When he finished screaming, he lifted his leg and aimed a halfhearted kick at her shins. RickyJo jumped back out of the way.

"Okay, I will have Rick take you," she said, grasping at straws. Rick didn't want to take Toby for a drive anymore than Michonne did but she had enough blackmail information on him that she figured he might possibly be persuaded. He and Beth still hadn't told Hershel that she was knocked up.

"YOU KNOW I HATE PIGS AUNT RICKY!"

Jessica couldn't hide her laughter now. She leaned into the doorframe and just let it roll over her. Toby went back to flopping around and wailing like he was dying while RickyJo tried again to bribe the boy with food and treats. She even offered to read to him and Jessica knew he loved that. But he was not having any of it. Now he was crying and sniffling, telling her she didn't really love him because he wasn't actually related to her.

Daryl came down the hallway, dragging the dog along next to him by the collar. Snoop was pulling and wiggling, trying to get away and dart back outside. His nose and paws were covered with fresh dirt, which meant he had probably been digging in the gardens again. Daryl let go of the dog and tried to shoo him into the kitchen where Toby was. Usually the dog would stay with Toby. Of course the dog spun right around and took off back the way they had come. Daryl cursed.

"One o'these days Rick is gone shoot that damn dog," Daryl mumbled. A loud howl echoed out of the kitchen. Daryl leaned in, getting a look at what was going on. Toby was on the floor throwing a regular fit. Daryl took a step back. No way was he getting dragged into this mess. He never thought he would say it about any kid ever after what his dad had done to him and Merle, but what that kid needed was a grade A ass whooping. And he already knew RickyJo was not of a mind to let anyone give it to him. Especially him since she was still fucking pissed about him cussing at her over her tattoo. Daryl turned on his heel and headed back out after the dog. Jessica laughed after him.

"Hey Toby," Jessica yelled, "you better go get yer damn dog before Rick shoots 'im."

She was only kidding. The fact that the boy's other dog had been shot in front of him hadn't really crossed her mind until RickyJo threw her a dirty look. Toby had been mostly fake crying before, but no he really turned it loose. Big tears were sliding down his face and he was blubbering like a real baby. RickyJo was down on the floor in two seconds, pulling the boy into her arms and giving in to all his demands. Of course she would take him to Woodbury. She would take him right now. And of course Snoop could come along. It didn't matter if he got carsick in her new jeep. He was part of the family.

Once Toby was fully placated, he allowed himself to be pulled up into a chair. RickyJo got him a tissue and some water. Then she went to get her things ready and let Rick and Hershel know they were leaving. And she figured she better tell Daryl. Or better yet she could avoid that chore and hope Rick told him after she was gone. He was not going to like this shit any more than he liked her new ink. Not one little bit.

Once her cousin was gone, Jessica slunk into the kitchen and sat down on the edge of the table across from Toby. For someone that had been about to die of sadness a few minutes before, he seemed rather pleased with himself now. He was humming a little song and kicking the toe of his shoe against the leg of the chair he was sitting in. He was up to something. Jessica could smell it. She had a feeling she knew who had put him up to this too.

"How much did Merle offer to pay you if you could get RickyJo to drive you to Woodbury today?," Jessica asked him. The boy's eyes flew open with a bit of shock but he recovered quickly. Then his mouth twisted up into a wolfy grin.

"A whole bag of bite size halloween candy and two packs of smokes," Toby admitted. They stared each other down for a few seconds before Jessica started laughing.

"If you want me to keep my mouth shut I expect five pieces of your candy," she told the boy, "...and not the tootsie rolls neither. Real candy." Toby thought her offer over before he stuck out his hand for her to shake. He figured that was fair enough. And he was planning to share his candy with Duane and the girls anyway. They were his friends. The first real ones he had ever had.

TWD

The day was hot enought that the wind blowing in her hair felt good as they rode down the familiar roads that took them to Woodbury. The jeep she had was not the same as the one she lost back at the quarry. That had been a brand new white wrangler and this one was an older red model. She found it in the parking lot down at the mall. A walker had been inside it with the keys in it's pocket and a case of jack daniels in the back seat. It was then she decided she was meant to have this jeep. The first thing she did was take the cover and the doors off. The next thing she did was trick Daryl into going for a ride with her during which she tore ass through a half trampled corn field. Just to make sure the jeep could handle it if they had to go off roading of course.

Martinez was up on top of the wall when they arrived and he gave them a friendly wave before he leaped down and swung the gate open. Almost like he had been expecting them. RickyJo quickly pulled to the side and slammed the jeep into park. She could hear Snoop starting to make his pre-puking noises. Dragging the dog down onto the pavement by the collar, she barely got him out in time. He puked up a nice big puddle right next to the back tire. Looked like mostly half digested dog food with some grass mixed in. But in the middle of the puddle was the torn off head of a purple plastic rubber duckie.

"Guess we know what happened to Judith's rubber duck," RickyJo remarked. Beth had been looking for that stupid duck for the last three days. It was Judith's favorite bath toy. She glanced over at Martinez and grimaced. "Sorry," she said, nodding towards the puke puddle, "I'll clean it up."

"Don't even worry about it," he said, giving her a friendly smile, "I'll just drag the hose out and spray it down later." He leaned down and gave Snoop a rub behind the ears. "Anything for our favorite guard dog." RickyJo raised her eyebrows up and looked at him like he had lost his mind. Snoop was about the furthest thing from a guard dog she had ever seen. All that dog was good for was destroying her things and making messes. After the grocery store run she had went on with the girls, that damn dog had gotten up onto the bunk. The top bunk. He climbed up on the top bunk and ate every single bit of snack food that she had pinched for herself. If that wasn't bad enough, the damn dog got sick off the chocolate bars he fucking stole from her and barfed on her boots.

Martinez smiled at Toby and gave her a wink. She could tell now he was just joking around about the guard dog thing. Just being nice. That made more sense. She smiled back at him. He offered to take her on a little tour around town. Since she hadn't been there since the fight she had where she killed the governor, she agreed. RickyJo knew he and Andrea had made a lot of changes and she found she was actually eager to see what they had done.

Lots more gardens had been put in. They were growing food in buckets and containers as well. But what she was most impressed with were the old interrogation rooms. They had all been fitted with shelving and turned into storage areas. One of the ones that tended to stay cooler had been turned into a root cellar. Milton's lab had also been made over, into a sort of hospital triage area. There were even a few people lying on the cots. People she didn't recognize that she guessed might have been brought in off the road recently.

The last place he took her was the spot that used to be the arena. The fighting pits. That place got a lot of direct sunlight. More dirt had been brought in to help amend the hard packed clay. They had turned it into a big garden. They were growing most of the same things the prison group was growing. Tomatoes and peppers. Beans and sweet corn and sunflowers that looked ready to bloom. Snoop dashing around, enjoying all the new smells and chasing away a rabbit that was nibbling at a pea plant. RickyJo reached over, her hand coming to rest on Martinez's shoulder. She had expected some change. But not so much. She didn't have the words for what she was feeling, which was mostly just overwhelmed.

"You did good," she told him. He smiled, almost beaming with pride.

"All that shit he fed us. About making a new world and this being the beginning of something," he said, "Now it's actually true." RickyJo nodded. She felt like that's all she could so without losing control over her emotions. This was a good place now. A safe place. Just like it always should have been.

"You know the place just ain't the same without you," he told her. He had two reasons for saying it. One, because Merle had sort of asked him to. And two, because it was true. RickyJo had always been an asset. She was good at thinking long term. The governor would have seen that if he hadn't been so busy trying to creep on her. Andrea was turning out to be a good co-leader. But she wasn't RickyJo. And she was splitting her time between Woodbury and the prison. Martinez had a feeling she would want to move there eventually. To be with Michonne. That would leave them a man short. Or more precisely, a woman short.

"I don't know...," RickyJo said, starting to think up the laundry list of reasons why she couldn't come back here. Jessica, her neices, all the other friends she had made at the prison that already felt more like family. And Daryl. And Daryl. And Daryl.

Martinez held up a hand, stopping her mid sentence. "You don't have to answer now," he told her, "just think about it, okay?" She nodded. She could agree to that. She could think about it.


	35. Chapter 35

Five Minute Window

Chapter 35

Since she was in Woodbury, it was hard not to take advantage of a hot shower when one was offered. Toby had run off with his dog, likely heading off to find some new brand of mischief to get into. Martinez walked her up to the intake room, grabbing her some clean towels from a supply closet on the way. RickyJo hesitated in the doorway of the room, her spine going stiff as a metal pole.

"If you would rather, you could use the shower at my apartment," he quickly offered. RickyJo looked disturbed and the last thing he wanted to do was scare or upset her. He was trying to talk her into moving here, not trying to make her scared to come back. She swallowed hard. _This is just a room. Same as any room. Just a place to take a shower. Don't make more of it than what it is._

"I'm fine," she assured him. Then she turned and took the towels from Martinez's hands before entering the room. RickyJo reminded herself that she still had her knife, her gun, and her bow. No one had tried to take them from her. Plus the shower in this room had the best water pressure. She wasn't going to let what some creepy jerk did make her afraid to enjoy the first hot shower she had in months.

"I'm heading out to the wall, but Karen is downstairs doing some canning if you need anything," he told her. RickyJo thanked him with a nod and smiled at him. Her smile seemed a little forced, but he could tell she was more relaxed than she had been a few moments before.

She shut the door behind her and headed straight for the shower, twisting the knob until the water started coming out hot and steamy. The anticipation of finally feeling clean and scrubbed pushed the thoughts of what had happened to her the last time she was in Woodbury out of her mind. She peeled off her clothes, tossing them into a sloppy pile in the closest chair on top of her weapons. Feeling with her hand first to make sure the water wasn't too hot, she slid under and closed the curtain behind her.

The hot water sluicing down over her body felt so good she hummed, letting a soft moan escape from her lips. It took her three hard shampoo scrubs before she could get her hair to lather at the roots. There was a disposable razor next to the soap that looked new so she snatched it up and rid herself of her excess body hair. She always felt so much cleaner when her legs and underarms were shaved. With no further reason to keep standing under the stream of water, she reluctantly twisted the knob and turned the shower off.

When she pulled the curtain back, RickyJo startled. There was a clean pile of clothes on the table that had not been there when she climbed into the shower. Which meant someone had come and gone from the room without her knowlegde. She snatched up the closest towel, wrapping it around her body before she checked to make sure her weapons were still under her clothes. They were. She grabbed up her knife, stalking around the small room to make sure no one was hiding inside, her long wet hair leaving a slippery water trail behind her. There was no on inside the room and she was starting to feel a little silly for panicking like she had. Martinez had told her Karen was downstairs. The woman had probably just brought her up some clothes and hadn't wanted to disturb her.

RickyJo approached the pile of clothes on the table, poking at them with her knife before she touched them. She set the knife down and smiled. They were not some weird sex clothes that a pervert had picked out for her. They were her clothes. Things she had left here when they made a run for it and never come back for. A well worn pair of jeans with the knees ripped. Black cotton bra and panties that could double as a bathing suit if they had to. And her favorite white tshirt. The loose fitting one with the soft lace panels on the sides that made the material more breathable and showed her tattoos off a little when she moved her arms.

The jeans were not as snug on her as they used to be, but they still fit. She put the bra on but left the shirt off before she combed her towel dried hair out in front of the mirror. RickyJo had never been the kind of girl that liked looking in the mirror. Not even before the turn. She preferred to see herself reflected in the expressions of the people she cared about. But today she took a good look at herself. She had a healthy tan from working out in the gardens. It made the old cigarette burns on her neck and shoulders look like faded little oddly shaped rings. White instead of pink against her tan skin. No one ever noticed them anyway. They always just stared at her tattoos. And it was really too bad that it was the end of the world, because she had a few tattoos that needed to be touched up.

Her body was leaner and more angular than she remembered it being. And she looked older in the face. Not tired and worn out and frightened anymore. Just older. Her hair was bleached from the sun, and the lighter streaks around her face were almost platnium. She leaned in a little closer to the mirror, then laughed. The streaks looked lighter because there were white strands of hair mixed in with them now. That was new. She tired to figure out how old she even was now and then decided she didn't really care.

There was a quick knock on the door before it was swung open. RickyJo grabbed for her shirt and pulled it over her head. She untangled her hair from inside it while she listened to Merle laughing at her.

"No reason to be shy," he told her, "seen it all before darlin'." She rolled her eyes and tried to ignore him while she grabbed her belt off the chair, strapping her weapons back onto her waist.

"Doesn't mean yer gonna see it again," she spit back. That just made him laugh more, like he knew something she didn't.

"Hungry?," he asked her. She snorted and stared at him with her hand cocked up on her hip. He knew better than anyone that was a stupid question. She was always hungry. Merle looked her up and down, admiring her angry body launguage before he laughed at her some more. That was some quality angry pouting she was doing. She was sexy when she got herself all wound up.

"Gone have dinner with me and the boy or not?"

RickyJo shrugged, which he decided to take as a yes. She gathered her things up and let him lead her out of the building. Merle slung his unwelcome arm around her shoulders once they got outside, pulling her close to him. She elbowed him in the ribs a little but it didn't seem to have much effect on him. On the contrary, he seemed to be enjoying her reactions to his advances. He was acting like such a cocky bastard, she was having a hard time not laughing at him. Merle was always the most in his element when he knew he was irritating someone. Especially her.

Finally giving up the anger that she was holding onto, RickyJo shifted her clothes under her left arm and slung her arm around Merle's waist. She thought he would laugh at her again, but his only response was to grip her shoulder and pull her in closer so he could plant a kiss on the top of her head. She didn't notice where he was leading her until it was almost too late.

"You're not staying in there," she said. Her body went stiff and she ducked out from under his arm, stepping backwards down the hall.

"It's just an apartment," Merle said. His voice sounded softer than it normally did and she found the timber of it soothing. She still wasn't sure she wanted to go back into that apartment though. Phillip's apartment.

"At least come in and look," he persuaded, "if ya still want to leave we kin go eat somewhere else." He motioned her forward with his hand.

The truth was Phillip Blake had picked out the best apartment in town for himself. It had it's own bathroom with a tub and a shower, kitchen space, a small garden area outside, and the place was huge. No one wanted it after what happened inside so Merle decided he would take it. He tossed a rug down over the spot where the blood stains didn't come out of the carpet and declared the place good as new. But the rug wasn't the only thing he added. And he wanted RickyJo to see the rest.

RickyJo let Merle lead her down the hall and into the apartment. She had a sick feeling in her gut when she stepped inside the door, like she expected Phillip's rotting corpse to still be lying on the floor by the bed. But once she started looking around inside, her fears quickly dissipated. The whole place looked different. If she hadn't come down the hallway she would not have even recognized it. The furniture had been replaced and moved around. Nothing was left behind from when the governor had been living here. The rug on the floor caught her eye. It looked just like the one she had in her apartment back in Atlanta. When she got closer she noticed a small pinkish stain in one corner. This was her rug from her apartment in Atlanta.

The bed had been moved over by the door to the small garden, so it would catch the morning light from the window. The bedding on it looked familiar too. Dark purple sheets with a green and white bedspread. She moved towards it, rubbing the corner of the sheet back and forth with her fingers. This was from her apartment as well. She would bet money on it. Those sheets were special order from some fancy company in New York. 1500 thread count egyptian cotton. She had bought five sets of them and it had cost her a small fortune.

"What... Where... How did you get this stuff," she asked, turning away from the bed. Merle had a big smirk plastered on his face. RickyJo realized her mouth was hanging open and she quickly snapped it shut.

"Which question ya want me ta answer first?," he shot back. She tried to find the words for what she was thinking. Which was hard since she didn't even know what she was thinking. Everywhere she looked she noticed things that she had not before. The lamps next to the bed. The books stacked up on a shelf. Even the curtains and the cloth on the table. All of it was hers. Things she had given up for lost and thought she would never see again. Where had all this come from and when had Merle done this? And more importantly why? That was the question she decided she needed answered first.

"Why would you do this?," she finally asked.

"Jus' thought you would be more comfortable with yer own things around," he told her.

RickyJo shook her head, attempting to clear it. She didn't understand. Merle hadn't spoken to her in months. In fact, he had been going out of his way to ignore her. Acting like he hated her. And all that time he had been making trips to Atlanta to make this apartment nice for her. She was having a hard time wrapping her head around it. Just when she thought it couldn't get any stranger, Merle crossed the room and banged on the door that used to lead to the disturbing room full of fishbowls and walker Penny's cage.

"Tole ya only an hour of games," he called, pounding on the door with his fist. There was a shuffling noise inside and then Merle thew the door open. RickyJo was too curious to stop herself, she wandered over and peeked inside. There was a bunk bed against the wall, and a dog bed on the floor next to it for Snopp. Toby was inside sitting in a bean bag chair playing video games. The room was so much nicer than the one she shared with Toby back at the prison it was no wonder he always wanted to be brought to Woodbury. The boy did as he was told, saving his place in his game before turning it off. Then he tilted his head back to look at RickyJo. He beamed a big toothy smile up at her.

"Hey Aunt Ricky, how do ya like our new place?"


	36. Chapter 36

Five Minute Window

Chapter 36

First RickyJo ate too much. Or at least more than she had become used to eating. Then she drank too much. Her stomach hurt from how full it was and from how much she had been laughing. Toby was in his full element, showing off all the tricks he had been teaching his dog. The boy was getting a little giggly himself, slightly drunk off the half a glass of wine that RickyJo had allowed him to drink and the other half a glass he had snuck when she wasn't looking. She had tried to keep her guard up at first, but that hadn't lasted long. Having dinner with Toby and Merle felt a bit like coming home again. For such a long time they had been the only two people RickyJo felt like she could trust.

Grabbing for the bottle of wine, RickyJo tilted it up. Pouring the last of it out into her glass. She didn't care if she was already drunk, this was her favorite thing to drink besides really expensive tequila and she did not intend to let any of it go to waste. Red wine that was so dry it smelled and tasted like the oak barrels it was fermented in. It was good stuff too, not something she could have picked up on a run to a big box store.

"Did you get this from my apartment too?," she asked, reading the label on the bottle. Merle nodded. He had pretty much taken almost everything that wasn't nailed down. Determined that this grand gesture would make up for everything that had passed between them before, he had really pulled out all the stops. He was sure that when RickyJo saw the time and effort he had put into making her happy she would fall back into his arms, the hateful words he had spit at her in a fit of jealousy and anger would be forgotten like a bad dream that never really happened at all.

What Merle hadn't counted on was Daryl having the balls to move in on his woman while he was gone. That complicated things. RickyJo and Daryl had always been close, ever since they met. But more than that RickyJo hated hurting people. Merle knew if she thought coming back here to be with him was really going to hurt Daryl, she might stay at the prison with him even if she didn't want to.

"Alright," Merle said, clapping his one good hand against the opposite arm, "Time for bed." RickyJo sipped at her wine, expecting Toby to object. Refusing to do anything that he was told was pretty much Toby's standard operating procedure. A conspiratory look passed between Toby and Merle that did not escape her attention. Then Toby hopped up, like going to bed early was the best thing that had ever happened to him in his whole entire life. RickyJo smiled into her wine glass. This was all feeling more and more like some kind of setup. Merle and Toby had planned all this. RickyJo felt like the idea of the two of them plotting together ought to make her mad. But the truth was, she felt exactly the opposite about it. RickyJo wasn't sure if it was her belly full of peas and roasted chicken or the wine, but the thought of all the trouble the two sneaky plotters had gone through just to make her happy made her feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Merle got a rough hug from Toby, which made RickyJo smile again. The two of them had always been cute together. Then the boy had a big hug and a kiss on the cheek for her. She held onto him tightly, rubbing at his back. Toby wasn't always so generous with his affections, partly because of his age and partly because of his past experiences. So whenever he was willing to let her hug him, RickyJo made sure to take full advantage even though he usually smelled like man sweat and dirty socks.

"Night Aunt Ricky," he said.

"Night honey," she told him, grasping his hand and giving it a little squeeze before he and the dog went scampering off to Toby's room. She knew some of it was an act, especially the part where Toby acted like didn't mind going to bed early, but he did appear to be genuinely happy here. Maybe she was being selfish trying to keep him at the prison with her.

RickyJo took another small sip of her wine, trying to pace herself before she got even drunker than she already was. She set the glass down and leaned forward resting her chin on her palm with her elbow on the table. A little sigh slipped out of her. Merle had been trying not to be overly obvious about it, but he had been watching her all through dinner. Watching and waiting for just the right moment to talk to her. He had figured her out a long time ago. If RickyJo felt rushed or pressured she would push back. Finally she looked contented and relaxed enough for him to try broaching the subjects he would rather avoid altogether.

Merle reached across the table and caught her slim hand in his larger one. He restrained himself. What he wanted to do was yank her out of her chair and into his lap. Peel her clothes off. Kiss her in all the places he knew she liked until she agreed to stay here with him indefinitely. Instead he just held her hand gently in his, lifting it up slowly towards his lips. He gave her plenty of time to pull her hand back if the contact was unwanted. Then he held her hand to his lips, kissing the back of it like they were in some sort of old time movie. It made her smile, like he knew it would. RickyJo was tough but she was still a girl like every other girl in the world. She ate up that sappy shit like it was ice cream with a cherry on top.

He kissed the back of her hand again, letting his lips linger just a second longer than they had the time before. Then he turned her hand over and pressed his lips into the center of her open palm. She hummed, breathing out a soft sigh. Her eyes blinked shut and he saw the tip of her tounge flick out to wet her lips. It was an unconcious gesture, one he was sure she didn't know she made. Whenever she thought he was about to kiss her she licked her lips like she was waiting for the taste of him. He pressed her warm hand against his freshly shaved face, feeling encouraged when she cupped his face and stroked his smooth skin with the pad of her thumb.

Merle had a plan. Get her here. That had been Toby's job. Once she was here he impressed her with all the things he had done for her. Fed her. It was no secret that RickyJo liked to eat. Got her a little drunk, that always helped. Toby had to make himself scarce so they could be alone. Then Merle planned to talk to her. Get RickyJo to agree to stay here with him. After that he wanted to take her to bed. After. That was a key part of the plan. He didn't want her getting all upset and full of regret after they slept together.

Now all those little details seemed so much less important than the ones that were in front of his eyes. Her hair looked so clean and soft, and when he leaned close she smelled like soap and the baby oil she liked to rub over her tattoos to keep them from fading. Merle liked the way her black bra showed through the thin white shirt she was wearing. Her breasts always looked just a little to big for her frame, like they were fake and would be firm and hard to the touch. But he had touched them enough times to know how soft they were. As soft as her lips, which he was not going to be able to wait much longer to kiss.

Be smart. Don't be stupid. Be smart. _Don't be so fucking eager to get your dick wet that you fuck this up._ He repeated the words in his head a few times. But by the third time Merle was already out of his chair. Pulling RickyJo to her feet and claiming her mouth with his. He felt her hands against his chest, pushing him back. But her efforts were half hearted at best. The whole time she was shoving at him she was kissing him back. Sucking his tounge into her mouth and moaning when he wrapped an arm around her waist and ground his hips into hers.

Her head was swirling from the wine and the way Merle was kissing her. Once she felt herself lifted off the ground and up into his arms, RickyJo knew she had gone past the point of no return. He was going to take her to bed and she was going to let him. In that moment she understood the difference between Merle and Daryl in a way she hadn't before. Being with Daryl was like having an anchor in the middle of a storm. He kept her grounded. Merle was the storm. And come what may, tonight she was going to let the storm wash her away.

He peeled her clothes off and she found herself just as eager to get at his flesh as he was to get at hers. RickyJo forgot how good it felt to lose herself in him. There was no tomorrow, no decisions to be made. Just the here and now. Only his mouth on hers and the delicious stretch she felt when he shoved hard and deep inside her. She came almost immediately and it left her overly sensitive, each thrust sending another wave of pleasure rocking through her with so much intensity that it was almost painful.

Her skin felt like it was on fire, hot against his palm as he used his hand to tilt her hips so he could slide just a fraction deeper inside of her. She had stopped arching up to meet his thrusts, her body limp against the mattress except for her arms. Her hands fisted into the expensive sheets beneath her, the muscles in her arms taunt with tension as she bit down on her lower lip. He rolled his hips into her one last time, finding his own release. Then he was lifted her up again, this time she relaxed into his arms and let her head rest on his shoulder. After lying her down on the pillow he crawled in beside her and pulled the blankets up over them both.

"I am so comfortable right now," she mumbled, humming little noises of pleasure as she wiggled around to get even more comfortable. She never really thought much about it, but the beds at the prison were horrible. The mattresses were thin and lumpy, making it easy to feel the hard metal frames below. The sheets were rough and scratchy and there was no room at all to stretch out. It was even worse with two people trying to sleep in one thin bed together. Lying on a good quality mattress with nice soft sheets, she felt like she was lying on a cloud.

The snap of a lighter brought her back from the edge of sleep. RickyJo rolled over and reached for the cigarette Merle had between his fingers, bringing it to her lips and taking a long drag. The smoke made her cough. It felt like just a little tickle in her throat, but soon she was shoving the cigarette back at him and sitting up in bed to pound on her own chest. Her lungs felt like they were burning with exertion. Merle grabbed a half empty glass of water from the table and shoved it at her. Taking slow sips she was able to get her breathing back under control but the coughing fit had left her with a red face and watery eyes.

"You feelin' alright?," Merle asked her, reaching over to place his hand across her brow. He noticed she felt hot while they were having sex but he had assumed it was just because of what they were doing at the time. Now he wasn't so sure.

"I think I just need some sleep," RickyJo said, falling back onto the pillows. Since he mentioned it, she had been feeling a little dizzy and her face felt warm, but she had assumed it was just because she drank too much. Merle fumbled around inside one of the cabinets, returning to place a large white pill into her hand. RickyJo smiled gratefully and swallowed the ibuprofen down with what was left of the water.

"If yer coughing like that in the mornin' yer goin' to the doctor," he informed her. Normally this would cause an argument. RickyJo hated many things. It was a toss up on what she hated the most, being so sick she had to go to the doctor or being told she was sick and had to got to the doctor. When all she did was nod her head in agreement to Merle's declaration and nuzzle back into her pillow, that's when he really started to get worried about her.

 **** Sorry for the long delay updating this story, I've been a little stuck on it. I want to get the characters back on track, heading through terminus and possibly to Alexandria and the wolves storyline but since the governor's already dead I wasn't sure how to make that happen. I have some ideas bouncing around right now but if anyone has a suggestion be sure to shoot me a review. ****


	37. Chapter 37

Five Minute Window

Chapter 37

Pretending was a child's game. But even as a child Merle didn't remember doing much of it. Losing himself in one of the few books he had managed to keep safely hidden from his father was about as close as Merle ever came to mentally escaping the harsh reality of his life. But as he laid back on his pillow, shifting his body carefully to keep from disturbing the sleeping woman who's rumpled head was resting on his chest, it was easy to let his mind wander. The last time they had slept in her bed together, he and RickyJo had been back in her apartment in Atlanta. Right after he lost his hand.

He had never been alone with a woman for that long before. Unless they were servicing his sexual needs, he found most women to be rather annoying. Women talked too much. They were needy and clingy. Merle never had any interest in living with a woman or even being alone with one longer than necessary. The few attempts he had made at having any sort of long term relationship had been absolute and complete failures. Being alone with a woman in an empty apartment for over two weeks would have sounded like absolute torture. On par with listening to rap and taking an overnight watch alone with Glenn and Maggie.

Instead of being eager to get the hell away from her after a few days, Merle found he enjoyed being alone with RickyJo. She had been the one trying to talk him into going back to the quarry and he had made up excuse after flimsy excuse why they needed to stay right where they were. His hand still hurt. There were too many biters in the street outside her building. He needed to finish his antbiotics. Every single thing he told her was a lie. The truth was he just liked being alone with her. Being with RickyJo was like coming home. He always had a soft spot for her, but once he got her under him that small soft spot became something else. Something more. When he had her in his arms he felt like a whole person in a way that he hadn't before.

A soft sigh escaped her lips and she nuzzled into his chest. Using his hard chest as a pillow must not have been very comfortable because RickyJo offered up another sleepy sigh before she rolled over onto her side, one long leg hiking up and out of the blankets. She coughed a little more. Not hard enough to wake herself up this time, but Merle didn't like the sound of it. He sat up and pulled the blankets up around her, pressing his wrist gently against her forehead and trying to figure out if she had a fever. RickyJo's head felt a little warm but he wasn't sure if that meant anything. He knew the woman had been running herself ragged, going on too many runs and working in that garden some nights until it got dark out and she was forced to quit. She was thinner. Too thin. Which meant she hadn't been eating enough. Sometimes getting sick was the body's way of forcing a person to slow down a little.

Content with the idea of taking RickyJo down to medical in the morning, Merle rolled into her. He tucked his knees in behind hers and wrapped his good arm around her waist. She smelled like soap and dry red wine. Her skin was as soft and he reached up to brush her hair out of the way so he could have access to his favorite part of her body. The curve where her neck met her shoulder. The area was peppered with old scars, some faded so light they were almost invisible.

Her earlobe on that side was missing. From her fight with the governor. Merle knew he had been stupid to blame her for that. At the time he had simply gone crazy, full of more hatred and frustration than he knew what to do with. The person Merle had really been angry with was himself. For getting RickyJo into that situation. For not even being the one to find her and help her. Daryl had done that. But at the time he hadn't been thinking straight. Lashing out at her felt good. Later, when he calmed down and realized what he had done and said, it had been too late to take back what happened.

Now she was back. With him. He had her back. And he was going to make things right with her. Merle kissed the worst of her scars. The red angry marks where Hershel had sewn what was left of her ear back together. He did it softly, like a whisper, so that he wouldn't wake her. After her ear, he kissed each one of the scars on her neck and shoulder. The room was dimly lit but he didn't need the light. He knew her body and where each of her scars were without needing to see them. Her breathing had a little hitch to it, but the slow even rhythm still lulled him to sleep.

Merle wasn't sure how long he slept, but he knew he slept hard because he woke up feeling disoriented. Toby was screaming and RickyJo was coughing. Hard. The lamp by the bed was turned on, and the brightness of it was hurting Merle's burning eyes.

"Uncle Merle!," Toby screamed again, "Somethin's wrong with Aunt Ricky!" The boy slapped at her back, trying to shove a glass of water into her hands. But she was coughing so hard she couldn't even grab the water. She was also naked, which alarmed Merle. RickyJo wasn't shy about her body, but she always made an effort to cover up in front of Toby. Her breasts shook with her efforts and the skin between her ribs almost looked like it was sucking in. That's how hard she was gasping for breath. Merle shook his head, trying to clear it. Then he took control.

"Stop smacking at her," he ordered, catching Toby's hand by the wrist. Merle didn't chastise the boy further. Toby looked frightened and Merle knew he was only trying to help. Merle jumped up from bed and yanked a pair of pants on to cover his own nudity. Then he grabbed a mostly empty bowl from the table and headed around the other side of the bed. Merle held the bowl with his one good hand and rubbed at RickyJo's back with the stump of his wrist.

"Go get someone from medical," he told Toby. Eager to have some instructions on how he could help, Toby took off like a rocket. His dog ran after him, barking as they went. Merle turned his attention back to RickyJo. Her breath was coming in short wheezing gasps, but finally she half barfed half coughed up a disgusting wad of flem into the bowl Merle was holding for her. The flem had a pinkish bloody tinge to it that did not look promising. She looked up at Merle, making eye contact with him for just a few seconds. In that moment, he thought she was going to be alright. He pulled the bowl away and grabbed for the glass of water Toby had been trying to force on her. Then RickyJo's eyes rolled back in her head. She fainted, falling back onto the bed.

Merle pressed his wrist to her head again. He couldn't think of anything else to do. Before, when he had been snuggling against her, she had felt almost pleasantly warm. Now her flesh was on fire. She opened her eyes, but they were rolling back in her head. She arched her back, the muscles in her body all going stiff at the same time. A deep wheezing gasp could be heard as she struggled for air. Merle froze. He felt frightened and helpless, not having the slightest idea of what to do to help her. She went limp again and he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding in. She lay still. Her eyes rolled back in her head, only the whites showing, giving her a ghastly walker like appearance. Her body went stiff again and then she started to convulse.

TWD

Beth could hear the gunshots. She held Judith close, balancing the girl on her hip. In her other hand she held the gun Rick had taught her how to shoot. She wasn't ever going to be a crack shot, but she was proficient enough with the weapon that she knew she could defend herself and Judith if she had to. Judith was a sensitive baby. She could sense the moods of the people around her. And this was no exception. Judith clung to Beth as tightly as the young woman was clinging to her.

When they heard the gunshots, Rick had been talking to her about her pregnancy again. He wanted to tell her father. Beth knew it was past time to tell him. She knew Rick was right. But she had been arguing with him about it anyway. Now she was holding his daughter and waiting for him to come back. Praying that her last words to him were not going to be the angry ones she had spoken right before he grabbed his gun and ran out of the small cell they shared. Waiting on him to come back safe was absolute agony. The seconds ticked by like hours.

Rick did not come back. But Maggie poked her head in as she and Carl passed by with Michonne propped up between them. she asked.

"What's happening," Beth asked, leaving her cell even though Rick had told her to stay put. She followed the trio into the cell that served as a sort of makeshift medical exam room. Her father's cell was on one side of it and Dr. S slept in the cell on the other side. Beth was scared for Michonne, but once the woman was sitting down on the bunk it was obvious that she only had a minor injury to her ankle.

"Don't know," Maggie admitted, the fear and nervousness clear in her tone. She heard the shooting. Rick wasn't the only one in there. Glenn was with him. She was just as afraid as Beth was. But she couldn't exactly drag an injured women into a fight with her just because she wanted to check on her boyfriend. I'm gonna go find out what's happening, Maggie announced once Michonne was deposited safely on the bunk.

"I'm going with you," Beth told her sister. Maggie glanced at the baby in Beth's arms. Beth glanced around. Before the woman could object, Beth shoved Judith into Michonne's arms. Maggie already had a running start and Beth took off down the corridor after her. The day was sunny and bright. After the dimness inside the prison, the light blinded Beth momentarily as she darted out the door. She blinked, one hand coming up to shade her eyes. Rick. She could see him. He was alive and unharmed. Beth didn't see him motioning for her to stop until she was already crushed against his chest. Her arms wrapped around his waist.

"I'm so sorry for what I said before," she mumbled, "I love you."

You've got to get back, he said. Her squeezed her once more, then backed off and gestured for her to stay put. Rick could see the hurt on her face, so he explained his actions quickly. Beth was a sensitive girl and pregnancy had not improved her disposition.

"I've been exposed," he said, "I don't want you to get sick. People in there..." He pointed towards the cell block people were now starting to file out of. "Some of them died from some kind of sickness. Hershel said we've all been exposed."

Beth still looked upset, but she nodded her understanding. One of her small hands came up, the palm pressing flat against the hard bulge of her stomach. And almost unconcious gesture that Rick had noticed her doing more and more lately. Beth did not try to go to him again. She had been afraid for her baby ever since she figured out she was pregnant. Her worst nightmares were about what might happen to her child if they had to leave the safety of the prison. But being scared that something might happen to the baby while it was still tucked safely away inside her brought with it an entirely new swell of emotions. Beth took another step back. She didn't want to get sick. As long as her baby was inside her they were sharing the same immune system. If she got sick, that meant her baby was going to get sick too. She couldn't stand the thought of that.

"I want you to get Carl and Judith," Rick told her, "take enough food and water for a few days and go over into the empty cell block near the prison offices. I'll come get you when it's safe." Rick spoke firmly, anticipating some objections from the girl. But Beth didn't argue with him. She only bobbed her head up and down with a solemn expression on her face that made her look years older than she was. Beth nodded at him, but then her eyes weren't focused on him anymore. They were focused on something behind him. Her face changed. The serious little half frown disappeared as her mouth dropped open. Her eyes went wide with fear as her hand rose from her stomach to point down across the carefully planted crops to the fences beyond.

"The fences!," Beth screamed, finally finding her voice, "Oh god, they're comin' right over them!"

Rick spun, his hand reaching for the gun that wasn't attached to his belt anymore. Not that it was going to help him anyway. There were far too many walkers out there for him to even think about shooting. A massive teeming herd of rotting corpses. More than he had ever seen together in one place before. They must have been out in the woods somewhere. Maybe the gunfire had drawnt them in. Or maybe they would have ended up here at the prison regardless. The outer fence was already giving way. Some of the dead were being literally squeezed through the holes in the chain link like cheese through a grater, pressed in by the sheer force of the massive herd behind them.

From the corner of his eye, Rick saw a flash of copper hair. Then Jessica appeared next to him, peering through the scope on the sniper rifle she favored. She had her finger on the trigger, but then Morgan was pressing his hand down on the top of the gun. He shook his head. Rick knew what the man was thinking without having to ask. Because he was thinking the same thing himself. There were just too many. Even if they used every single last bullet they had, they were never going to be able to take out that many walkers. There was only one choice left. They were going to have to leave this place. They were going to have to run.

 **** There is a problem with uploading files on the site right now. I had to copy and paste this chapter instead of uploading it and almost all my punctuation got removed in that process. I read through it and checked the text over but I apologize if there are more grammar or spelling errors than usual. ****


	38. Chapter 38

Five Minute Window

Chapter 38

The large box fan was sitting in the doorway, facing into the room. Turned on high with the shades pulled down over the windows, it was keeping most of the late afternoon heat at bay. When RickyJo woke up her body was sore and her tounge felt like sandpaper. Even the dim light inside the room made her wince and squint her eyes. She brought her hand up to rub the sleep from her eyes so she could try to take stock of her surroudings. Since she didn't know where she was or how she got there, she assumed that she had done a fair amount of drinking the night before. After further investigation she realized she wasn't wearing much in the way of clothing. The cheap sheets under her were stiff and scratchy against her bare skin. She figured at least she had woken up alone instead of in bed with someone she didn't know. Or someone she did know.

Blinking her eyes against the light she forced herself to open them so she could figure out where she was. RickyJo used her palms to shove herself up into a sitting postion. She felt weak and the muscles in her arms shook from just the slight effort it took to push her body up and back. Sitting up made her dizzy and she pressed her hands against the side of her head to try and stop the room from spinning. Once she felt more steady, RickyJo looked around the room. Her surroundings made her even more confused. The place she was in was totally unfamiliar. It looked like some sort of makeshift hospital. She was in a thin bed with railings on the sides of it, both of which were raised to keep her from falling out.

There was another bed in the room, occupied by a young girl with long blonde hair. The girl's blue eyes were open wide and she was looking at RickyJo with a mixture of excitement and surprise on her face. She looked familiar in an unsettling way. Like RickyJo ought to know who she was except no name was coming to mind. RickyJo opened her mouth to speak to the girl. She intended to ask the girl where they were and what had happened to her. But nothing came out except a dry croaking sound.

There was a bottle of water on a small metal table next to her bed and RickyJo grabbed for it, ignoring the pinch in her arm from the IV that was lodged there. She twisted off the cap and chugging down the entire contents in a few sloppy gulps. A hangover was one thing, but this was something different. Something worse. Her gran had been fond of telling her that she was going to drink herself retarded and for a moment she wondered if she actually had in fact gotten drunk to the point of giving herself brain damage. She put away her concerns of possible retardation for the moment to worry about a more pressing concern. Thirst. She had never been so thristy in her entire life as she was in this moment. After she watched RickyJo chug her water down, the blonde girl tossed off the patchwork quilt that was covering her lower half and swung her legs out of bed. She shuffled towards the open door of the room, taking care to avoid the large fan that was partially blocking her path.

"Daddy!," the girl hollered, "Daddy! She's awake!" The girl was wearing plaid pajama bottoms that were too long for her and a snug fitting tank top. Her pants drug on the floor under her small feet. Once the blanket was tossed off, RickyJo could see the girl was sporting a sizeable pregnant stomach under her clothes. She looked a little young to be pregnant.

An older man hurried into the room, shooing the young girl back into her bed. "You're supposed to be on bed rest," he reminded her in a tone that RickyJo could tell meant that it was not the first time the girl had been reminded to stay in bed. Like the younger girl, RickyJo had a weird feeling that she ought to know the older man's name. It was like his name was on the tip of her tounge but her mind was completely blank. Worse than blank, she felt like her mind was clouded by a thick fog. The fog made it impossible to see more than a few inches in front of her. The feeling was maddening and it didn't do much to ease her growing fear about where she was and how she got there.

The man had a soft white beard and kind eyes. From the tone of his voice, RickyJo could tell he had genuine concern for the girl who he had ordered back to bed, the girl RickyJo guessed was his daughter since he hurried into the room when she started screaming for her daddy. He acted like a doctor. But he was wearing regular street clothes. Suspenders and a worn in looking button down shirt. Not a doctor's coat. Seeing him made RickyJo realize she was naked from the waist up where the blankets had slid down. She grabbed the cheap sheet that had been covering her and held it to her chest to cover her nakedness.

The man approached slowly, placing his hand against her forehead first like he was checking her for a fever. Then he pulled out a small flashlight and waved it back and forth in front of her face. RickyJo put up with his examination until he took a stethoscope and started reaching forward like he was going to stick it down under the sheet she was cluching to her chest. Unfortunately for Hershel, RickyJo's survival instincts took that moment to kick in. She smacked his hand away. Next she went for the IV that was stuck in her arm, ripping it out and tossing it away. The clear fluid started dripping out and making a puddle on the floor next to her bed.

"Who the fuck are you?," she hollered at the man, her voice came out dry and scratchy like it had been a long time she she last spoke. Without waiting for a response she grabbed the metal tray off the roller that was being used as a table. A paperback book and half a pack of peanut butter crackers flung against the wall. She hurled the tray in a crude frisbee style at the old man, hitting him square in the chest. He grunted and backed up a few more steps, glancing with a lot of concern at the young girl in the bed next to RickyJo.

"RickyJo!," the girl cried out, "What are you doing? Don't you know us? It's me Beth."

RickyJo turned towards the girl. The girl had called her by name. And not her legal name, the one that could be found on her driver's license and credit cards. But her real name. The name that her family and friends called her by. RickyJo hesitated a moment, but once her adrenaline kicked she always had a hard time dialing back her fear and aggression. This time was no different. She gripped the metal railing on the side of the bed and tried to hike herself over the side. Her poorly formed plan was to escape from wherever she was being held and ask questions later. She managed to swing one leg over the railing but her body was stiff and awkward. Her legs tangled in the sheet she was covered in and she half flung half fell over the railing. Her body hit the hard tile floor with a audible slap.

"Are you alright," Hershel asked. His fear of RickyJo's sudden aggression was overcome by his intense need to help her. He pulled her up into a sitting position. Her arms went around him, helping him by lifting some of her own body weight. For a moment Hershel thought she was being cooperative, until he backed up a step and realized she had used the opportunity to steal the knife from his holster.

"That's enough now," Hershel ordered. He used his firmest tone of voice. The one he usually reserved for naughty horses and his older daughter Maggie. "Hand that over right now before someone gets hurt," he added, moving forward and holding out his hand for the stolen hunting knife. The old man moved with confidence, fully expecting the woman to come to her senses and hand over the weapon before she hurt herself or someone else. When she took a swipe at him instead, Hershel almost didn't make it out of the way in time. The pin point tip of the knife grazed his arm. Beth shrieked as the blood welled up from the small cut on Hershel's arm.

"Hells Bells!," he hollered, backing further away and gripping down on his injured arm with his other hand to keep himself from bleeding any more. Beth let out another yip, unsure what part of the horrible scene was more shocking, RickyJo taking a swipe at her father or hearing her father curse for the first time in her life. Beth watched the woman on the floor, her fear tempered with a large amount of pity. RickyJo's eyes were wide as saucers and she had gathered the sheet around herself and managed to position herself against the wall next to her bed. She was gripping the knife so hard in her hand that her knuckles were turning white. Her hands were shaking the worst but her whole body was quivering, making her toes tap out an awkward rhythm on the floor under her feet.

"Holy shit!" The voice came from the doorway and RickyJo turned her attention from the old man to a much younger one. He was average height and had a handsome face and wavy brown hair. Like the other two people he looked familiar but unfamiliar at the same time. Another name lost in the muddled fog of her mind. "She's awake," Rick announced. That was one word for what RickyJo was at least. She was not only awake she looked like a rabid animal. A knife was cluthed in her fist, a drop of blood on the tip of it from where she cut Hershel's arm.

"Get Bethy out first," Hershel ordered when he saw Rick was coming towards him first to see how badly he was hurt, "she only knicked me." Rick nodded and headed towards Beth instead, making sure to keep a close eye on RickyJo. She had gotten the jump on him before and he didn't intend to let it happen again. Despite dying twice and being resessitated twice and being in a coma for over a month he wasn't stupid enough to underestimate her strength or how quickly she could move. Making that mistake once was already one time too many.

"RickyJo," he said, trying to keep his tone from sounding overly threatening. He could see that RickyJo was already scared out of her mind and he didn't want to make the situation worse. At the sound of her name, she looked up at him, her hazel eyes so wide with fear that they looked almost black. "I'm not gonna hurt you. I just want to get Beth out of here so she can be safe. Do. Not. Stab. Me." RickyJo didn't nod or give any indication that she understood him, but she did stay pressed against the wall as he walked further into the room and gently lifted Beth up into his arms. His cowboy boots clacked against the tile as he hurried from the room with his precious cargo.

"I think someone better go get Jessica or one of the brothers," Hershel called after him. Rick called back that he was already on it.

Jessica. RickyJo snapped back into focus when she heard the woman mentioned. That was one name that was not lost in the fog. Jessica was her cousin. Her sister. Her best friend since the time they were little enough to still be dressed in matching pigtails and poofy white sunday church dresses. Jessica meant wild copper hair and freckles and staying up giggling about boys and it never felt as good when anyone else brushed her hair as it did when Jessica brushed it.

RickyJo griped the knife and waited. She focused on trying to get her breathing under control to stop herself from hyperventelating. She hugged her knees to her chest and prayed. RickyJo hadn't prayed since she was a little girl but she prayed that Jessica was really coming and that these horrible fog people weren't playing some kind of evil trick on her. She kept a close eye on the old man but she also watched the doorway, waiting for Jessica to appear.

As the seconds ticked by, RickyJo felt worse and worse. Her hip and shoulder throbbed from her fall from the bed and she was having a hard time keeping herself alert. She felt nauseous. Mostly she just wanted to lie down on the cold floor and close her eyes. But she waited, tightening her grip on the knife in her hands.

Jessica did not appear in the doorway. Instead it was someone else RickyJo knew. He was familiar. Much more familiar than the blonde girl or her father. As she tried to pluck his name from the fog RickyJo got an old hazy memory instead. She was one the beach, her toes in the sand. The water was cool and the waves were rushing in, wetting the hem of her long dress. The man's hands were on her. One on the bare skin of her back and the other grazing down to stroke over the curve of her ass. He was kissing her. Really kissing her. Open mouth. Eyes shut. Her hair blowing around them in the ocean breeze. None of the hesitation in him as he kissed her that she was seeing now as he hovered in the doorway of the medical room. As the memory faded back into nothing the man's name came. Daryl. RickyJo noticed her vision blur from the tears before she realized she was sobbing

"Move slow," Hershel warned the man, "she's a little confused." Daryl nodded. He did as Hershel said and took a few slow steps, approaching her the way he would approach and injured animal. But once he saw RickyJo burst into tears he rushed at her. He took the knife from her first, Daryl wasn't stupid. Crying or not, he saw the blood on Hershel's arm where RickyJo had cut that tough old sumbitch. But his caution was unneccesary. She had no more resistance in her. When Daryl pulled the knife from her hand she let him take it. Then she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder.

"Home," she pleaded, "Take me home." He just held her in his arms and let her cry, not having the heart to tell her that he didn't even know where home was anymore.


	39. Chapter 39

Five Minute Window

Chapter 39

She felt feather light in his arms and Daryl gripped the tall woman tighter, chasing the images of her slowly wasting away in a hospital bed from his mind. RickyJo felt lighter but she was gripping him back with her arms around his neck. One of her now bony hands was fisting into the material of his shirt. He took her to his room. Daryl didn't need much space. After the small cell he had been living in at the prison his new room in Woodbury felt spacious even though he had to cram the queen sized bed against the wall to make it fit. Having a big bed was the one thing he had gotten picky about. Sleeping two people on a prison bunk had not been his favorite thing. Getting a bed big enough for two people to sleep in was his way of refusing to let go of the last bit of hope he had that things would turn out right for once in his sorry life.

Home. Daryl knew that was where RickyJo asked him to take her. In her confusion she might have meant her apartment in Atlanta or maybe even her grandmother's ranch. Or even worse, there was a chance she wanted to be taken to the apartment that Merle was living in. That was where her clothes and other personal belongings were being kept. The fight over her things had gotten so ugly between Daryl and his brother that finally Jessica had to step in and take over. She had really laid into both him and Merle, reminding them both that they were fighting over clothing and a small stack of paperback books while the woman they were fighting over was lying half dead in a hospital bed.

A temporary truce had been established between the two men. But that didn't mean Daryl intended to just take RickyJo right over to his brother's much larger and more spacious apartment and hand her over. Until she told him otherwise he was taking her to his room.

He tried leaning down to twist at the doorknob and almost succeded in dropping the woman he was holding in his arms. Thinking better of his first impulse, Daryl set her down gently on her feet first and then yanked at the doorknob to his room and swung the door open. RickyJo clutched the dingy white sheet to her chest with one hand. She braced herself against the wall with the other hand but managed to stay on her feet as she shuffled inside. It only took her a few steps to reach the edge of the bed but once she got there RickyJo sunk down like just that small effort had totally exhausted her. She looked tired and thirsty. As skinny as she was Daryl felt the immediate urge to feed her before all else, but he was also smart enough to realize that she might like to be dressed in something other than a thin white sheet before she sat down for a meal.

"I'll get you some clothes," Daryl told her with a nod of his head. He had decided on a plan of action. First he needed to get her some clothes. Then he would get her something to eat and drink. He would figure out what else to do after that. "Stay here," Daryl added, taking a step towards the door that was still hanging open.

"Wait," RickyJo croaked. Her voice was rough and throaty. The only other time he could remember her voice sounding like that was in the morning after she had screamed herself mute at a rock concert the night before. She rose back up off the bed and reached out with her free hand, gripping his forearm with so much force he could feel her fingernails digging into his flesh. Her eyes were wide and her body was trembling. "Don't leave me here alone," she pleaded.

Daryl kicked the door shut behind him with his foot as he gathered her into his arms. He sat down on the bed and settled her on his lap, holding her tight as she apologized in a choked scratchy whipser. RickyJo hated feeling like she was being needy. Whenever she asked for something she wanted, she always apologized.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled into his shoulder, "I don't know where I am."

He waited for her to calm down. Then he started to explain. They were in his room. There were too many walkers outside the prison. The fences came down and there was just no fixing them. So they all came to live at Woodbury. Rick said it was better that way, since there was safety in numbers. Rick was lying about how he realyl felt but that was okay, since he was doing it to be kind. He didn't like it here, feeling like guests in someone else's home even if the someone elses were happy to have them.

Instead of calming her down, Daryl's simple explanation seemed to upset her more. RickyJo slid off his lap and glanced around the small space. The only personal touch in the room besides the large container full of arrows was a small wooden squirrel statue on the dresser. A present from one of Jessica's daughters.

"You live here?," RickyJo asked. Her breath hitched, catching in her throat before she blinked and the tears spilled out of her eyes and ran down over her hollow cheeks. "You moved out of our apartment without telling me?"

"Huh?," Daryl asked. He scrubbed at his face with his hands, trying to clear his head and make some sense out of what was going on. Brain damage. He had been sitting on the edge of RickyJo's bed, holding her limp hand in his. Praying that she wouldn't die. Hershel had come in and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. Then the old man had told him. Her fever got so high before they brought it down that if RickyJo ever woke up she might be brain damaged. _Maybe it's better this way._ Hershel had only been trying to help him prepare for the worst. Daryl knew that now. But at the time Daryl had replied in anger, saying horrible things to the man he cared for more than he cared for his own father. But now he was grateful for Hershel's words. They were helping him to make some guess at what was going on inside RickyJo's head. She didn't know Hershel or Beth when she woke up. And now she was talking about their old apartment in Atlanta like it was yesterday. He figured she must have some sort of memory loss.

"You were sick," Daryl said, reaching for the hanky in his back pocket so he could mop up her tear streaked face. "Real sick, uh... yer fever got real high." Daryl struggled with his words, trying to think of the right way to explain something he didn't really understand to someone that, even with her memory loss, still probably knew more about medical conditions than he did. "I think you ain't rememberin' right."

RickyJo sucked up her tears and took a few deep breaths. Something felt wrong to her right from the beginning. As soon as she woke up she felt like she was putting together a puzzle with half the pieces missing. The blonde girl in the bed next to her had looked so familiar and yet so unfamiliar at the same time. Memory loss from brain damage could account for a lot of her confusion. The fog was still swirling in her mind, but now that there was an explanation for it, it wasn't making her feel as panicked as it had been before.

"I remember you," RickyJo reminded the man on the bed next to her. Her words made Daryl smile. A pink blush spread across his cheeks turning even the tips of his ears red. That made RickyJo smile and she leaned forward to wrap her arms around him, forgetting that she was naked under the sheet she had been holding to her chest. Now it was her turn to blush as she snatched the sheet back up to cover her naked breasts and the hard swollen buds of her nipples.

Eager for something to occupy his hands, Daryl rose up off the bed and began rummaging through the one drawer of clothing he possessed. He spotted a white undershirt that was relatively clean and pulled it from the drawer along with a clean pair of boxer shorts. RickyJo took the offered items and Daryl stood there staring at her for long enough to make the situation awkward before he realized she was waiting for him to turn his back before she dropped her sheet and got dressed.

RickyJo's hair was thinner, but it hung down soft and silky from all the times Jessica had insisted on washing and brushing it. Her opinion was that RickyJo would want her hair to look nice when she woke up. Not if she woke up. When she woke up. Jessica never stopped believing.

The boxers were big on her hips and she had rolled the waistband over a few times to make them fit. But the shirt looked the best on her. It was white and thin enough that dark outline of her nipples showed through. In Daryl's eyes, RickyJo was always beautiful. Even when she was hung over with her dark eyeliner from the night before smeared under her eyes she still looked good to him. But nothing was sexier on her than when she would borrow his shirts. He never asked why she didn't just go to the men's department and buy her own oversized tshirts. It's not like she didn't have the money to buy whatever she wanted. He just let her borrow his. Sometimes just the sight of her long naked legs sticking out from under his shirt would be enough to send him packing it directly into the shower where he could masturbate without her knowing about it.

"If I was that sick, why wasn't I in a real hospital?," RickyJo asked. Without waiting for an answer, she lifted her hand and bit at the corner of her thumb. Then she fired off another question, "...and what were you sayin' about prison? Yer brother's not in trouble again is he? 'Cause I don't have another 50 grand just layin' around."

Daryl knew he ought to set RickyJo down and start explaining things. Figuring out how much she remembered and fill her in from there. But instead he smiled bigger than he had in a long time and took a moment to bask in the wonderful way she was talking about Merle. First off, she referred to him as _yer brother,_ which in pre-end of the world RickyJo speak was synonymous with _pain in the ass fuck up that can't stay out of trouble._ Not that she didn't have a soft spot for Merle even back then, but she certainly didn't used to consider him marriage material.

Hearing RickyJo talk like that made Daryl feel good inside in a way he hadn't since he left with Rick to go to the CDC instead of staying behind and waiting for her to come back. They had never discussed the fact that he didn't come looking for her. The only time RickyJo ever brought it up was after they got out of Woodbury together. But it had always been there between them, hovering over them like a dark cloud of secrets and regret. Even when they were sleeping together, things never felt the same. Too much shit had happened and despite the fact that they had become lovers, they had never really found their way back to being friends. The easy trust between them was gone. But now Daryl could feel it there again. He knew it made him possibly the most selfish man in the world but in that moment he hoped with all his heart that she never got her memories back.

Before Daryl could respond there was a knock on his door. A quick two taps before the door was flung open. Jessica rushed past him and wrapped her arms around RickyJo. Daryl felt a pang of annoyance at having his private moment stolen away. However this was quickly replaced by the relief of knowing that he might not have to be the one to explain the end of the world to someone that had somehow had the luck to forget all the horror and have a few moments of just normal life worries instead of life or death worries.

After Jessica, the girls rushed in and took their turns wrapping their arms around their aunt. Daryl stepped back into the doorway and watched. He could tell RickyJo was shocked at how old her neices looked. Especially Cassie, who was looking more and more like a woman and less like a little girl every day. The girls both started talking at once, coming at RickyJo with a barage of questions that Daryl could tell were overwhelming for her. So he called them over to him and suggested they walk down to the main kitchen and get their aunt something to eat while she and their mother talk. Jessica nodded her approval. While Daryl would rather stay for the talk that was coming, he didn't fail to notice the grateful look on RickyJo's face as he ushered the girls away. She was still smiling at him when he shut the door to his room.

TWD

Long deep breaths. In through the nose and out through the mouth. RickyJo clenched her fists against the bare skin of her thighs. She forced her hands to relax and was careful to control her facial expressions when really there was nothing in the world that could have erased the the tension from the rest of her body. Even her toes were clenched, curled up into her feet as the tips of her toenails scraped against the floor under her naked feet.

Since the moment she woke up into this horrible nightmare everyone RickyJo encountered had been looking at her like she was crazier than Merle in the middle of a coke binge. And even worse than that, Daryl had been looking at her like he felt sorry for her. Pity was even worse than fear. If her baby cousin Jessica started coddling her RickyJo was certain it might drive her as absolutely crazy as the half strangers she had met today seemed to think she was. It had always been her job to take care of Jess. Not the other way around.

Other than the looks people had been giving her and the weird fog that seemed to be clouding her thoughts, there was something else that was bothering RickyJo. She couldn't put her finger on it. But so many small things seemed out of place. The way Daryl was dressed. Jessica and her girls didn't have their hair meticulously flat ironed. Jessica wasn't wearing makeup. Not even foundation to cover her freckles. The weird tiny room Daryl was staying in. It wasn't a studio apartment but it didn't look like a cheap hotel room either. Goodness knows she had dragged Merle out of enough crappy pay by the week hotel rooms to know what one looked like. Not a single one of them had ever had a handmade quilt on the bed. The hospital that wasn't a hospital that she had woken up in. The doctor that wasn't dressed like a doctor and the pregnant girl that looked far too young to be involved with the handsome man that had whisked her away in his arms. Something was very very wrong and RickyJo couldn't begin to put her finger on what it was. She needed Jessica to explain things to her. And she had a very distinct feeling that if she started acting crazy no one was going to tell her anything.

"What's going on?," RickyJo asked. She took another deep breath when she saw the hesitation on Jessica's face, willing herself to stay calm and not have another freak out.

"Hershel said you didn't know who he was...," Jessica said. She stopped there. Repeating what the man said about high fevers and possible permanent brain damage wasn't going to make RickyJo happy. She might have some memory loss, but Jessica could see her cousin wasn't feed me from a spoon retarded. RickyJo obviously knew who she was, who the girls were and who Daryl was, even if she didn't know where she was.

"The old guy or the young good looking one?," RickyJo asked, rolling her eyes in a way that Jessica knew meant good looking was only descriptive and not RickyJo's personal opinion of the man in question.

"The old guy," Jessica told her. RickyJo nodded her head, Jessica's words confirming what she had already guessed. She would not have been able to guess his name, but Hershel felt right. The younger guy looked more like a Nick or an Andy or something similarly generic.

"What's the last thing you remember?," Jessica asked. RickyJo needed to be caught up on whatever she didn't remember and Jessica needed somewhere to start. She closed her eyes for a moment, praying silently that RickyJo remembered that their gran was dead and that she wouldn't have to tell her that again. The first time had been bad enough. There were only a few times in their lives that Jessica could remember seeing the heartbreak on her cousin's face and that was one of them. Gran loved them all, but she and RickyJo always had a special bond.

RickyJo also closed her eyes. She tried to think back to the most recent memory she had. There were lots of weird swirly ones that were cloaked in fog and felt oddly out of context. A large fluffy dog lay bleeding on the ground at her feet as a tall man gripped her hard by the upper part of her arm. She remembered a young boy with dark skin and crooked teeth laughing as she held a chicken egg in her hands. Merle's arms wrapped around her as he showed her how to shoot a gun much fancier than the ones her grandfather had taught her to use. But none of the memories made sense. Her head was starting to pound from the effort she was putting in to try and sort everything out. RickyJo took another deep breath and once again forced herself to relax and let things flow. One memory stood out clearly in her mind.

"I remember Mexico," she finally announced. Jessica choked on her own spit, coughing twice and pounding on her own chest before she started laughing out loud. Her laughter made RickyJo smile and she leaned forward to wrap her arms around the woman.

"Ya ought-ta remember that," Jessica snorted, "Lost yer dang virginity there."

"To Daryl...," RickyJo added. Her declaration came out sounding more like a question. She didn't remember having sex, but she definitely remembered kissing him. Just thinking about it made her feel the heat in her cheeks from blushing. If the sex was as good as the kissing she was sorry she didn't remember it. Eager to change the subject, RickyJo quickly added, "Just fill me in from then until now." Jessica nodded her head.

"I'll do my best," she promised, "but it's a good thing yer already sitting down."

Jessica could tell that RickyJo was struggling to take everything in. Learning that the world had ended and dead people were walking around attacking the living was a hard pill to swallow. But Jessica could tell RickyJo was going to be alright because of the questions she was asking. Specific questions about the walker virus, how it spread, how long the bodies stayed animated. Finally, Jessica had to stop her. RickyJo was going to have to talk to Hershel or one of the other medical people about all the specifics later. Because honestly, Jessica didn't have a clue how to answer most of her questions. All she knew was to kill the dead you had to kill the brain and that walkers were attracted to light and noise. That's all she wanted or needed to know about them. Science had never been her favorite subject.

Besides, they had more important things to talk about. Personal real life things that had nothing to do with viruses or stabbing dead people in the skull. RickyJo had gotten herself into a sloppy horrible mess with Daryl and his brother. A mess that she still going to have to clean up despite the fact that she didn't remember making it. Merle was out hunting with Toby. But he was going to be back. And then the tug of war between him and Daryl was going to start back up. Before that happened Jessica wanted her cousin to know the situation she was in. She wanted RickyJo to know everything before she was pressured into making a decision based on things she couldn't even remember.

"Forget about the walkers for now," Jessica said. She grabbed for her cousin's hands. Daryl and the girls were coming back with food any minute. Jessica had planned to ease into this part of the talk, but didn't want him around for what she was about to say. She reached into the small bag she carried with her and pulled out a small crinkly package.

"You were in and out of it for over a month," she explained, pressing the package into RickyJo's hand. "I was helping Hershel take care of you...," Jessica paused, trying to think of a more delicate way to say what she was about to blurt out. Being delicate had never been Jessica's strong suit. There was just no good or easy way to say it.

"You didn't get your period," Jessica blurted, "It might be because you were sick and losing weight. But I think you better take this just in case."

RickyJo felt the plastic wrapped bundle in her hand. Her hands were shaking again, but she still managed to rip open the thick white foil to reveal what was inside. She was holding a pregnancy test.


	40. Chapter 40

Five Minute Window

Chapter 40

The light inside the bathroom was brighter than it needed to be. Either that or RickyJo's eyes were still overly sensitve to light. She guessed a little bit of both was probably true. A power cord snaked through the small hole someone had cut into the bottom corner of the door, leading out to wherever the power was coming from. There was a strip of yellow tape across the dingy white bathroom sink, serving as a warning that the sink was no longer functional. But despite the lack of clean running water, the counter around the sink made a fine spot to perch on. Somewhere to sit without having to open up the bathroom door. And RickyJo wasn't ready to open up the door yet.

Jessica was out there. She was hovering in the hallway, waiting for the results of the preganacy test that RickyJo had managed to force out a tiny stream of urine from her dehydrated body to take. RickyJo was still having a hard time with the specifics, but she was certain she had been in this position with her cousin before. Except she had been the one out in the hallway, waiting for Jessica to find out if yet another loser had impregnanted her. Back when they had been teenagers, Jessica's pregnancy scares were an almost monthly occurance.

The tiny instruction manual that came with the test was very specific. One tiny line in the first box meant not pregnant. Life would go normally. Or as normally as it could taking into account everything that Jessica had just told her about dead people coming back to life and trying to eat the living. But a second line in the second tiny little white box meant something else entirely. A second line meant RickyJo was going to get something she had wanted ever since the nurse placed Jessica's tiny newborn daughter in her arms. It meant she was going to be a mother.

The paper that came folded up inside the foil packet with the test crinkled in her hands. RickyJo made another attempt at smoothing the wrinkles out of it by flattening it against her thigh. The wording on it seemed impossibly tiny as she read it for what she knew was at least the tenth time with her eyes half slitted shut against the bright light of thebare bulb inside the small closet sized bathroom. She looked at the diagrams and then back at the test again, not sure if she wanted to let herself really believe what she was seeing. If what she woke up to hadn't felt like a dream before, it certainly did now.

"RickyJo," Jessica called in, knocking softly on the door again in her impatience, "how's it going in there." RickyJo didn't answer. She just continued to stare at the white plastic stick in her hands. Dropping the crumply paper, she let it flutter to the floor at her feet. Instead of gripping the instructions that told in exact detail how to urinate on a stick, she used her hand to push her shirt up. RickyJo placed her palm flat against the bare skin her hollow stomach and closed her eyes. Her stomach didn't feel like it had a baby growing inside of it. In fact, all she heard was the grumble of her tummy's protest at being much more empty than she was used to. Her wrist made contact with the protruding bone of her hip and she realized she had woken up much skinnier than she had ever been before in her adult life.

"Are you alright in there?," Jessica asked again. RickyJo had been in the bathroom for what felt like an eternity and Jessica was starting to get worried. If RickyJo fainted in there and fell against the door they were going to have one hell of a time getting her out. Jessice knocked again. She could hear voices coming from down the hall and she was certain that they belonged to Daryl and her daughters. Jessica knocked on the door once more, putting a little more force behind her balled up fist. "RickyJo!"

"I'm fine," RickyJo insisted. She just wanted a few more moments alone with her thoughts before she came out. Some time to get control over her facial features if not her emotions.

"Then open up the damn door," Jessica ordered. She had spoken and knocked on the door too loud. Jessica cringed when she saw Daryl rushing down the narrow hallway in her direction.

"What's goin' on," he demanded. Jessica opened her mouth and then closed it, trying to think up a convincing lie and think it up quick. Without waiting for an answer Daryl started twisting at the doorknob on the bathroom door. It was locked of course, or Jessica would have already flung the damn thing open. He hollered at RickyJo and pounded on the door, the panic obvious in his tone of voice. When RickyJo didn't answer he backed up and lifted up his leg to kick the door in. Before he did, the door was opened abruptly, making Daryl stumble a step as he fought to catch his balance.

RickyJo still had the small plastic stick in her hand as she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly in her arms. Her eyes were red rimmed and Jessica guessed the only reason her cousin wasn't bawling her eyes out was that she was simply too hungry and dehydrated to cry.

"What's wrong?," Daryl asked again. He mumbled into the soft blanket of RickyJo's hair. She felt so slight and fragile in his arms, he pulled her tighter against him like he wanted to protect her from all the horror of the world with the sheer mass of his body.

"Nothin's wrong," she croaked. Her voice was starting to feel better but having her throat get all thick with emotions wasn't helping. She backed up a little, not leaving Daryl's arms but just getting far enough back that she could hold the pregnancy test up in front of his face. "I'm pregnant," she announced.

RickyJo looked so happy that for a moment Jessica forgot about how scary it might be to have a baby in this new world. She wiped at her own eyes, feeling overcome with her many varied emotions. She was a mother, but she had never been an aunt before.

"Lemme see that," Daryl ordered. He unwound one arm from around RickyJo's waist and snatched up the small white stick she was holding in front of his face. She let him take it, using the tip of her finger to point to a small faint blue line inside a tiny white box. As she pointed, she quickly explained that two lines meant the test was positive.

"What's positive mean?," Daryl asked, squinting at the test. RickyJo wrapped her arms around hs neck again, kissing him on the cheek and up the rough stubble of his jawline.

"It means I'm gonna have a baby," she gushed, "...well not just me, _we_ are gonna have a baby."

TWD

Beth scooted back on the bed. She crossed her slim arms under her breasts and scrunched her face up into a pout. Her frustration at being confined to the medical center had been growing steadily since they arrived at Woodbury. When they fled the prison after the fences fell, she had taken a hard fall climbing the steps of the bus. The bleeding had started a few hours later. Not a scary waterfall gushing, but more like a steady trickle. Enough blood that it scared her enough to tell her father what was going on. Since they were low on any type of modern technology, all Hershel could think to do was put her on bedrest and hope for the best. Beth was willing to stay in bed and rest if that's what was best for her baby. But she preferred the bed she shared with Rick over the narrow cot a the medical center. Her father was adamant that she stay in the medical center where he and the other makeshift doctors and nurses could keep an eye on her.

Hershel hadn't know about his daughter's pregnancy before she fell. Maybe the idea of her being pregnant and sick at the same time had been a little overwhelming for him. Because he had been hovering over her like a mother hen since he found out. Beth loved her father. But there was only so much of his doctoring and fathering she could take. And she had reached her limit around day two of her month long confinement.

"I'll stay in bed," Beth argued, her voice turning quickly from firm to pleading bordering on full out whining. "I swear I will." She had learned quickly that pleading and crying worked much more efficiently than yelling or pouting when it came to getting her way with Rick. With the high amount of hormones that were already coursing through her body, summoning up a few tears wasn't hard. Beth simply gave in and let her emotions wash over her. She sobbed into her hands, peeking through her fingers to see how Rick was reacting to her sudden emotional outburst.

Rick moved away from the dresser he had been leaning against and closed the distance between them. He pulled Beth's head against his chest and stroked his hand over her soft blonde curls, telling her she shouldn't cry. Crying was bad for the baby. Rick didn't spend much time in the small apartment he had been given. He spent most of his days working the walls or helping with the garden expansion. So he was glad Beth had Hershel to watch over her during the day. But at night he had been missing her. So much more than he ever thought he would.

Since in the old world, Beth would have been far too young for him, Rick tried not to think much about her age. But the truth was that Beth was a teenage girl. And she had the sex drive of a teenage girl. This meant all Rick had to do was kiss up the back of her neck and she was more than eager to spread her legs for him. Before the turn, Rick had been married to the same woman for over ten years. And the passion between him and Lori had been gone for almost the whole second half of those years. Until things started up between him and Beth, he had forgotten how good it felt to be in bed with a woman that was excited and eager to be with him. Even if they didn't have sex he slept better with his larger body curled around her smaller one.

When he lifted Beth in his arms to carry her out of the medical center she buried her face in the crook of his neck, her breath warm against his skin. He took her up to his apartment. Just to keep her out of the medical center until RickyJo calmed down. That woman was crazy enough when she was in her right mind. He had no idea what she might do if she was scared and confused. Running into Daryl outside the medical center had been a blessing. Rick was more than happy to let the other man handle the situation. He still meant to go back down to medical. Just to make sure Hershel was alright. But when he set Beth down on his bed, she kept her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him down to press her lips against his.

The moment he kissed her back, Beth's soft lips parted. The way she yielded to him so completely always took him by surprise. Her small hand fisted into the hair at the nape of his neck, pulling at his mop of curls as she sucked his tounge into her mouth. It took all his self control to place his hands gently on her shoulders and back away from her. Beth had always been a pretty girl. But being pregnant flattered her. Her breasts were bigger. Her hair was long and glossy. And the swelling round middle of her body brought to mind images of ripe peaches that were ready to be picked.

Rick had to remind himself that he should not be having sex with Beth. Not for any reason. She hadn't had any excessive bleeding since the first few days after they arrived in Woodbury. But that didn't mean it was safe for them to be together. He reminded himself of these facts a few times in a row. But it didn't make him want her any less. If she stayed in his room with him, he wasn't sure how long he was going to be able to control himself. Raking his fingers through his hair, Rick let out a audible sigh. Rick told her Beth was going to have to take her back to the medical center. He felt very sure that he was going to follow through on his words and take her back. Then she started crying.

Beth was the sweetest, kindest and most gentle person Rick had ever known. He could stand anyone's tears but hers. He took her in his arms and held her against his chest. Stroking his hands over her hair he quickly agreed to anything and everything she wanted. Of course she could stay here. He knew the bed at the medical center was uncomfortable. Of course he would explain this to her father. He knew she was in too fragile of a state to have to deal with any conflict. And of course he would stay and hold her. He knew she was lonely and needed to be held.

It wasn't until Rick felt Beth's hand slide up his thigh and grip his ass through his jeans that he knew he had been fooled. He knew but he wasn't sure if he cared. Especially once her other hand slid up and rubbed over the hard buldge in his pants. Beth's sobs turned into kisses that she trailed down his stomach. By the time her lips were wrapped around him, Rick had already forgotten any notions he had of taking her back to the medical center.


	41. Chapter 41

Five Minute Window

Chapter 41

RickyJo wrapped her skinny arms around Daryl's neck when she stepped out of the bathroom and she hadn't stopped touching him since. Even as she used both hands to eat she sat close enough to him on the side of his bed that the outside of her thigh was touching his. Daryl wrapped an arm around her waist and watched her eat in the way she always ate. RickyJo didn't really eat, she inhaled her food. Chewing as little as possible, she crammed the peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich Cassie had made for her into her mouth and washed it down with long gulping swigs of water from a quart sized mason jar. It was the way a lot of people ate now that food was scarce. But RickyJo had always eaten when she was alone or with people she knew well enough to feel comfortable around. It was the one habit she held over from the trauma and hunger she had experienced as a child.

"Did I get pregnant in Mexico?," she asked once she had swallowed the last chunk of sandwich and was sucking the last few bits of peanut butter off her thumb and index finger. Daryl shook his head. He should have known she was going to bombarde him with questions the moment her mouth was empty, but he had been holding onto a small thread of hope that she might hold off for just a little while longer. Some of the questions that were coming were questions he knew he either wouldn't answer or didn't want to answer. The worst were going to be questions about her pregnancy. Daryl wasn't an expert on women's health but he had been intimate with RickyJo back at the prison often enough to know that she had her period since the last time they had sex. That meant the child growing inside her probably wasn't his.

"That was over a year ago," Daryl finally said. Eager to steer the topic away from her pregnancy, he quickly added, "You remember Mexico?" And he would be damned if RickyJo didn't turn about ten different shades of red, blushing all the way up to the tips of her scarred up ear. She looked down at the mason jar in her hands, suddenly very interested in the condensation beading up on the sides of the cold glass.

"Some of it," she admitted, her voice still hoarse but sounding much softer and more tenative than it had been a few seconds before. All her memories were still jumbled up inside her mind but the things she remembered about that night were vivid and felt like they were happening all over again when she tried to sort the details out in her mind. The waves had been crashing in around her ankles and the wet sand was refreshingly cool under her feet. She remembered the heavy weight of Daryl's body on top of her and the way her orgasms felt like the waves, rolling over her body in a way she hadn't felt before and didn't remember feeling since. RickyJo's face felt hot and she fought the urge to bring the cold glass of water up and press it against her cheeks. Instead she lifted her damp fingers from the glass and set her hand gently on Daryl's knee. She kept her eyes down and spoke in a voice that didn't sound like her and came out just above a whisper, "I'm sure once I'm feelin' better you kin show me the parts I forgot."

She wasn't staring at him, but her eyes flicked up to gauge his reaction to her invitation. Daryl realized his mouth was hanging open and he snapped it shut. His mind was swirling. He knew he ought to be upfront with RickyJo about everything that had happened in the last year. But he didn't want to be. Daryl never regretted anything in his life more than he regretted the fight they had the morning after that first night they spent together. Now he felt like he was getting a second chance to go back and set things right. He didn't want to give that up. Not for anything or anyone. So instead of telling her what really happened, he reached over and tucked one knuckle under her chin, tilting her head up so he could press his lips to hers.

"I love ya," he told her, pulling back before the kiss could build up any real heat. He might not be telling the whole truth but he wasn't lying either. The fact that he loved her was the truest one he knew and when RickyJo was lying half dead in that bed he had regretted not telling her more often and with more passion how he really felt about her.

"Love you too," she replied. RickyJo kept her chin up for a moment more, her hazel eyes meeting his lighter ones. Her left hand was still resting on his knee and she looked down at it, lifting it up and turning it one way and then the other like she was examining it. "It's been over a year?," she asked. Daryl nodded, fearing whatever she was about to ask next. "I don't have a ring on...," she mentioned like the fact that her ring finger was naked surprised her, "...are we married?"

And there is was. The first question that Daryl couldn't answer without blantantly lying. RickyJo was married. But not to him. She even had a big gaudy diamond ring somewhere that Merle had probably swiped off a walker to put on her finger. Because unlike Daryl, Merle had been smart enough to marry her the first chance he got. Daryl thought about what to say and finally settled on just saying, "No," and not offering up any further explanation. RickyJo looked a little disappointed, which made him feel sort of good but also heartsick at the same time. Good because the idea of not being married to him disappointed her and heartsick because even though he wanted to be her husband a hundred times more than he figured she wanted to be his wife he knew he probably wasn't going to be able to make it happen.

There was a quick knock on the door to his room before it was eased open. Jessica and her girls were back with the clothes they had brought for RickyJo so she wouldn't have to walk around in a t-shirt and a pair of Daryl's too big for her boxers. Jessica had insisted on rushing away to get the clothes but Daryl had a feeling she had really just been trying to give them some privacy. A few moments alone before the reality of the new world was going to rush in and take over.

Daryl was shooed from his own room while RickyJo changed. She reappeared a few moments later in a pair of leggings that Jessica had obviously chosed because they wouldn't fall off her new much skinnier frame, and baggy army green t-shirt with gold print on the front that was thin enough to show the black bra she was wearing under it. RickyJo had her favorite sandals on her feet and her toes were polished. Daryl guessed since they were baby doll pink that they had likely been painted by Beth while RickyJo was still unconcious.

"Thanks Jess," RickyJo said, wrapping her arms around her cousin and tugging the woman into a tight embrace, "I do feel better dressed in my own clothes." RickyJo ws grateful to Jessica for getting her clothes for her, but the sudden appearance of them brought up so many more questions. She wondered why her things weren't being kept in Daryl's room with his things. RickyJo decided that maybe someone had taken her things to the hospital where she had been staying. Maybe Daryl had even taken them there himself, so she would have something to wear once she was feeling better. That seemed like something he would so. He was thoughtful like that. Or maybe she had her own place. He said they weren't married, so maybe they didn't live together either.

Jessica smiled, happy that her cousin seemed to be acting like her normal self again. And better yet, she was acting like her old self. The pre-end of the world self. The woman she had been before the dead and whatever terrible things that sick man did to her changed her. But Jessica's smile quickly turned to a pouty little frown since the moment RickyJo was fully dressed she immediately demanded to be taken outside to see the dead infected people Daryl had told her about.

"Ricky...," Jessica pleaded, "yer not well yet. You need rest. We can take ya out there tomorrow..." Jessica made a few more pathetic attempts to keep her cousin inside and resting, but she knew it was futile. Like he always had done when it came to RickyJo, Daryl was going to give in and do whatever she wanted. Jessica tried to reason with him, but she soon gave up and trudged along behind them as he walked RickyJo out of the building and into the bright light of the afternoon sun.

TWD

Merle glanced back at the comical scene behind him and tried his best not to laugh. Toby and Duane had bagged a deer. By themselves. Toby shot it and Duane field dressed it. Merle and Morgan had been there to supervise, but the boys had managed to get the job done without much assistance. Now they were walking back towards town with the deer swinging from two long poles between them, their little chests puffed up as proud as peacocks.

The two boys were chattering back and forth, talking way too much and too loudly. Merle thought about hollering at them to shut up and listen for biters, but he ended up just shrugging his shoulders and biting back another grin. He still remembered shooting his first buck. His lunatic father had been thrilled. The man had taken Merle home and given him his very first shot of moonshine. Then the old bastard had slurped down the rest of it himself and taken to engaging in one of his favorite hobbies, beating the hell out of Merle's pathetic excuse for a mother. Daryl had just been a little squirt back then, still wandering around the house in a dirty diaper. Merle had licked the last few drops of the burning liquid from the mason jar his father dropped and taken Daryl to sleep with him. That way Merle could make sure the dumb kid didn't stumble into his dad's path of destruction and get himself killed.

Morgan was also keeping watch to make sure the boys didn't get too far behind. Merle hadn't cared much for the man at first, seeing him as just another pathetic loser in a long line of loser that Jessica seemed to have a habit of attaching herself too. But after spending some time with the man, Merle discovered that hating him was more effort than it was worth. Morgan was a quiet and serious man. He was as patient with Toby as he was with Jessica's girls. And as far a Merle could see, the man seemed to be genuine about caring for Jessica and wanting to be part of her family. And if all that wasn't enough, Toby and Duane had become almost inseparable so Merle figured if he was going to have to spend time with Morgan he might as well make it bearable.

"Gonna hafta get you two loud mouths a beer when we get back," Merle called back to the boys. Toby let out a whoop while Duane just looked at his father to see if the man was going to object.

"One beer," Morgan informed the boy, "and one only." That made the boy smile and as Merle had hoped his offer of a beer got the two of them moving a lot faster than they had been before. The deer was getting too heavy for the still growing boys to carry and despite the fact that they were staring to slow down, both boys were still adamant that they did not need any help carrying the large doe back to town.

Merle stopped grinning as the sound of shuffling feet alerted him to the presence of at least one walker. He turned to get Morgan's attention but the man was already looking in the direction of the noise, trying to figure out how many of them were coming. Just another reason he didn't mind going hunting with Morgan. He never had to be reminded to stay alert. Another crunch of the leaves was followed by a low hissing moan that stirred up the rest of the small herd. They all started making noise, giving Merle and Morgan a better idea of how many of them there were.

"Too many," Morgan said after he motioned for the boys to keep quiet. The two older men moved quickly, bending down and shouldering up under the long pole the boys were using to carry the deer back to town. Toby pulled his handgun from the holster on his belt but Merle shook his head at the boy. There was a large herd coming at them. With any luck they were just passing through, but a gunshot would have the whole mess of them bearing down on them within seconds.

"That way," Morgan hissed as he gestured with one hand, pointing in the direction that would lead them on a diagonal path. Away from the walkers but still moving back towards town. Merle nodded as he brought the blade of his knife up under the chin of a walker that had wandered a little too close for comfort.

The small group took off at a quick trot, moving as fast as they could without making more noise than necessary. Merle knew they could drop the deer if they had to. The still fresh body would distract the herd and allow them enough time to escape. But he really didn't want to lose the meat unless they absolutely had no other choice.

Duane stuck close to his father as the man had taught him to do any time they were in a dangerous situation. Toby ran out in front and used the long machete he had been favoring lately to dispose of any walkers that were in the way. RickyJo had been teaching him how to shoot a long bow right before she got sick. Even though several other people had offered the boy lessons since then, the bow RickyJo had given him had stayed tucked away in the corner of his bedroom the entire time she had been in the infirmary. He had been using the machete since.

Merle was a realist. He knew the chances of RickyJo making any sort of recovery were slim to none with the limited medical resources they had in Woodbury. Toby had not been taking her illness well and Merle was concerned how the boy was going to react if her condition worsened. Seeing Toby depressed was the only thing worse than being depressed himself.

Kicking it's knee out, Toby knocked another walker to the ground and stabbed it through the eye socket with the point of his long knife. Merle could hear the crunch and shuffle as a lot of walkers passed through the woods behind them. He hoped that meant that they had gotten out in front of the herd. Since the long stick Morgan usually used to fend off the dead was currently being used to carry the deer back, he had a hunting knife in his hands. When a walker wandered too close, he stabbed up under it's chin and dropped it to the ground without even stopping.

"I saw the gate," Toby ran back to tell them, "We're almost there."

This made everyone walk just a little faster and before he knew it, Merle saw the gates himself. Large and even more secure than they used to be, he lifted his good arm to wave and signal for someone to get ready to open the gate for them. The sun was shining down from the west, turning the people up on the wall into armed silhouettes. As the smalle group headed out of the woods and onto the main road that would lead them into town, one lone walker followed after them. Merle got his knife out, preparing to stab the monster and kill the brain. He waited until it got close enough but just as he was about to bring his knife up under the walker's chin and arrow whistled past his ear and lodged firmly into the walker's head, sticking out from the eye socket.

Merle's first impulse was that Daryl had shot the thing. But the arrow sticking out was an actual arrow, not a bolt from a crossbow. They were still quite far away from the gate. And that walker had been deadly close to him. No one in Woodbury was that good a shot with a long bow. A least no one that wasn't lying half dead in the infirmary. Merle turned and kept walking, holding his metal sleeve up to try and shade his eyes from the sun. He squinted his eyes but it didn't do him any good. The people up on the wall were nothing more than shadows. He couldn't figure out who shot the arrow and he was seriously thinking about giving that person a piece of his mind once he got inside the gates. He didn't appreciate people taking risky shots that close to his body for no good reason.

Martinez held the gate open for them and Merle could see from the expression on the man's face that something was going on. He couldn't tell what but he didn't care for the expectant look on the other man's face. As the gates locked shut behind them, Merle dropped his side of the pole, letting the heavy deer carcass fall to the ground. He spun around and looked up, suddenly feeling like he was moving underwater. Nothing felt real. Not the ground under his feet or the straps of the lightweight pack on his back.

RickyJo was standing on the platform with her bow in her hands. Her arms were relaxed but she had another arrow notched and ready to go. The sun was reflecting off her long blonde hair, turning the golden strands into a halo around her head. Merle blinked hard, convinced in that moment that what he was seeing was her ghost and when he opened his eyes up again she would be gone. Some kind and well meaning person would take him aside and gently explain that while he was out hunting she finally slipped away. But when he opened his eyes again she was still there. The bow was lowered and she was holding the arrow loosely in her other hand, swinging it by the fletching. It wasn't until Merle heard Toby start to yell that he believed she was really there.

"Aunt Ricky! Aunt Ricky!," the boy screamed. Tears were welling up in his eyes and Toby fell flat on his face on the ramp that led up to the top of the wall. He got to his hands and knees and scrambled the rest of the way up, not stopping until his arms were wrapped tightly around RickyJo's long legs. "Yer awake! I knew you'd wake up!"


	42. Chapter 42

Five Minute Window

Chapter 42

RickyJo knew she had been very sick. Both Daryl and Jessica had explained to her several times that she had almost died. But the realization of just how sick she had been didn't fully hit her until she got out of breath just walking the short distance between the front door of the building that Daryl lived in and a giant makeshift wall that closed off the street at the end of the block. While she wasn't the sort of girl that got dressed up everyday and went strutting around at the gym, RickyJo had always been physically active. She ran on the track at the university she used to teach at. She enjoyed hunting and fishing and hiking. She even went to yoga classes after her ex-girlfriend got her hooked on them. In all her life she could never remember getting out of breath just from walking across a courtyard.

RickyJo forced herself to take slow deep breaths in through her nose instead of panting like a dog with her mouth open. What she really wanted to do was collapse right there on the cement and close her eyes until she felt like her old self again. But instead she settled for leaning slightly forward and bracing her hands on her thighs until she felt her heart stop beating like a rabbit's.

The wall in front of her had a locked gate in the middle of it that was wide and tall enough for a large sized vehicle to drive through. There was a platform at the top where several people were standing guard. They were all staring at her with mixed expressions on their faces that ranged from complete shock to raw joy and excitement. None of them looked familiar to her but RickyJo assumed from the way they were looking at her that she was familiar to them.

A hispanic man with a ball cap on was the first to jog down the long textured sheet of metal that was serving as a makeshift ladder. RickyJo stuck her hand out to him but he ignored it, pulling her into a warm embrace instead. She normally wouldn't have reacted well to being touched by a strange man but the with amount of raw emotion this particular man was showing she would have felt like a horrible person if she jerked away from him. RickyJo was a private person. One some people even considered to be a bit standoffish. She had never had a lot of close friends and even had a tendency to keep even her lovers at a distance. As she looked around at the faces of both the strange man in front of her and the people standing on the platform behind him RickyJo realized that maybe that part of her life had changed.

"She's alright," Daryl explained, crowding in next to her protectively and causing the hispanic man to step back, "but she don't remember much about livin' here or the walkers." The man that had been so quick to hug her changed his expression. Instead of looking at her with relief and joy, an expression of concern and pity clouded his face. He brought his hand up, lifting his hat and scratching at the dark shock of hair underneath it. RickyJo felt her cheeks flush with color. Having Daryl explain things about her to a small crowd of strangers like she was some kind of mental retard was more than just a little embarassing.

"I just need to see them for myself," she admitted. Until she actually saw one of the infected people Jessica had told her about she wasn't sure if she was really going to be able to believe it, even though all the evidence she had seen thus far had confirmed everything her cousin had told her. Society as a whole appeared to have completely broken down. People, at least the ones she had seen so far, had banded together to create a safe place for them to live. There was no evidence of government or military involvement that she could see, which probably meant both those factions were likely no longer in existence.

The hispanic man nodded and took another step back, clearing a path for RickyJo to head up the catwalk and onto the platform. From there she could look out over the wall. She wouldn't have to wait long. The dead would come like they always did, an endless parade of putrid cannibals.

RickyJo stared at the steep incline of the ramp. Her legs already felt like jello and she was winded from the walk over. It horrified her to admit it, even if she was only admitting it to herself, but she was afraid she wouldn't be able to make it up the ramp without falling flat on her face. Glancing up from the ramp, RickyJo looked around long enough to confirm what she already suspected. Everyone was watching her. Jessica was hovering nearby almost as close as Daryl, waiting for the chance to pounce on a reason to order RickyJo back inside to rest.

Of all the unfamiliar faces, the smile of one woman caught RickyJo's eye. She was dark skinned and very athletic looking. There was a sword strapped to her back and a long bow in her hands that RickyJo could tell she didn't know how to use just from the way she was gripping it. The woman smiled wider and stepped forward, putting one foot on the ramp to steady it and extending her hand down for RickyJo to grasp once she was halfway up. RickyJo smiled back at the woman and before she could over think her actions she took a deep breath and charged forward. Three thigh and calf burning steps and RickyJo's hand was locked around Michonne's. The woman hauled her the rest of the way up before throwing her arms around RickyJo just as the hispanic man had done.

"It's good to have you back," the woman said. Her eyes misted with emotion and she lowered her voice, adding quietly, "For a minute there we didn't think you were going to make it." Unlike the hispanic man, that had seemed totally unfamiliar, RickyJo felt like she ought to know this woman. Trying to sort through the fog in her mind was making her head start to throb. She closed her eyes and willed herself to relax. When she opened them she concentrated on the woman's face. RickyJo just wanted to remember her name. Just her name. Nothing else.

"Michelle?," she guessed, hoping she wasn't too far off. Several people laughed but the woman didn't. Instead she offered up a beautiful smile along with her name.

"Michonne," she said before she offered up some subtle encouragment. "I've been called worse." That brought on some more laughter from the people on the platform, and RickyJo wondered if she was missing out on some sort of joke that the rest of them understood and she didn't.

"Good thing I woke up," RickyJo announced, determined not only to change the subject but to prove to everyone that was watching her that she wasn't some sort of half retarded invalid, "because somebody needs to teach ya how to use that thang." She swallowed hard, irritated that she could barely talk without her throat feeling like sandpaper. RickyJo gestured towards the bow in Michonne's hands, which the woman gladly handed over to her.

"You were sort of in charge of giving lessons," the hispanic man informed her, "...before you got sick." He had climbed up the ramp behind her and was now facing east, looking out over the wall. RickyJo clutched the bow in her hands, grateful that Michonne kept an arm slung around her waist to steady her. From her demenor, it was obvious to RickyJo that she and Michonne had been close friends and she wondered if they had been more than that. The woman was beautiful in a unique way, something RickyJo found very attractive. But either her radar was as rusty as the rest of her, or Michonne was sending out a lot of mixed signals.

RickyJo glanced back down the ramp as Daryl, relieved that she still found him as attractive as she always had. She wished she had been a little more informative about what exactly was going on between them. That little white plastic stick had confirmed that they had slept together. And RickyJo doubted that she would have continued any sort of sexual relationship with anyone else if she was having one with Daryl. But something about the whole situation just didn't add up. She shook her head to clear it, determined that she would sit his ass down later and drag the truth out of him if it came to that. Right now she had other concerns.

The road was clear but lots of abandoned looking cars were lined up on either side of it, leading up to the gate that separated one side of the wall from the other. The hispanic man proded his elbow gently into her side and gestured for RickyJo to look where he was pointing. When she did she saw what looked like a homeless man wandering out of the woods near the edge of the road. Martinez hollered for everyone to hold their fire.

"He's infected?," RickyJo asked in a scratchy sounding voice that almost came out whisper quiet without her meaning for it to. Both Michonne and the man nodded, but RickyJo wasn't totally convinced yet. So far the man just looked like he might just be drunk or high on something.

"How long do you want us to hold fire?," someone called over from the other side of the wall. RickyJo could hear the fear and concern in the person's voice. Even up on a wall, armed with guns and knives and bows, these people were scared of the dirty shuffling man.

"It's only one," Martinez yelled back, "Let it get close enough for RickyJo to see it." Some low tone grumbling drifted over from the other side of the wall, mostly people complaining about not liking the dead to get so close. They complained but they listened to the man and held their fire. RickyJo nodded her thanks at him before turning her attention back to the man that was supposedly dead but still somehow walking around in the street. He shuffled out of the tall grasses on the side of the road and started walking in a circle out in front of one of the parked cars. Michonne lifted her hand to her lips and let out a shrill whistle to get his attention. The man responded to the noise, turning and heading in the direction of the wall.

As he got closer RickyJo could tell he was no ordinary man. One of his shoulders was ripped wide open. There was a large gaping wound there. A wound that wasn't bleeding. He contined to get closer and closer, finally getting close enough that the odd milky white of his eyes was visible. A little closer and RickyJo could smell him. The man was as Daryl and Jessica said he would be, a walking moving rotting corpse.

"Aim for the brain," Michonne said as she placed an arrow in RickyJo's hand. She took a step back to give the woman enough room to string and shoot the bow in her hands. RickyJo was surprised at how eager she was too shoot the man. She had never killed anyone before. But everything about him felt like a perversion of nature. She didn't just want to end his suffering, she wanted to kill him.

The same hands that had been shaking before were now as still as the air around her. RickyJo notched the arrow in the bow, noticing that pulling the string back took a lot more physical effort than she was used to exerting on such a simple task. Her muscles were straining but the burn felt good. RickyJo followed her target, aiming just slightly ahead of the walker's movements before she fired her arrow. The whistle of air that always came with firing an arrow came first, followed by the thunk of her arrow finding it's target. The people around her let up a collective cheer of excitement. A few of them even clapped their hands.

"It's good to have you back," Michonne repeated, the phrase taking on more meaning for RickyJo now that she knew she was better than most at killing the dead people that threatened this town.

"I got one," RickyJo called down to Daryl, her voice cracking with the strain of speaking louder than she should have. He smiled at her excitement but he didn't look surprised that she had hit her target. Unlike the others he had hunted with her long enough to know that aiming and firing a weapon were burned into her muscle memory. If she woke up remembering nothing else Daryl bet RickyJo would still know how to take her gun apart and clean it.

"Friendlies! Ten o'clock!," one man shouted. RickyJo spun back around, the quick movement making her more than a little dizzy. She put on arm on Michonne's shoulder, steadying herself this time instead of waiting for help. RickyJo looked towards where she assumed ten o'clock was, gasping a little when she saw that one of the people returning to town was someone that she didn't have to strain her mind to remember. He looked different. Older and thinner and his hair was longer, but she would know Merle anywhere. He and another man were carrying a large doe between them on a pole. There were two teenagish looking boys with them, one that was sticking close to the older men and one that was more daring. The daring one ran out in front of the small group to stab at another one of the dead people that had wandered into their path. As the men ermerged out of the woods and into the road, RickyJo was horrified to see that another dead person was following closely behind them. She strung another arrow in her bow and took careful aim. This time she didn't have as easy of a shot as she had a few moments before. If she missed, she might hit Merle. But she couldn't stand the thought of that monster getting any closer to him.

RickyJo heard Michonne suck in her breath as she released her arrow from her bow. It streaked through the air, thunking into the head of the dead man and dropping him where he stood. She grabbed another arrow just in case, but the danger was over for the time being. Martinez ran down the ramp and swung the gate open far enough for the men get the large deer inside. RickyJo watched them. Merle looked angry, but that wasn't unusual for him. While RickyJo had what Jessica liked to call a resting bitch face, Merle had what she liked to call a resting serial killer face. For all she knew he might be thinking about puppies and kittens with that horrible scowl on his face.

The boy that had been running out in front of the group was the first one to spot her. He made a beeline up the ramp and wrapped his arms around RickyJo's legs, nearly tackling her down onto the platform in the process. He was calling her Aunt Ricky. And crying. RickyJo could tell he knew her and if she was sure of one thing in this new crazy world she was sure if this boy ever found out she had no idea who he was his little heart would be broken. RickyJo would be forever grateful to Michonne for what she did in that moment. The woman leaned in and hissed a quick whisper into RickyJo's ear. _Toby._ That was his name. Once RickyJo heard the name it seemed to be the perfect name for the boy. She pulled Toby up to his feet so she could hug him back. He covered the front of her t-shirt with his spit and tears and snot and she didn't mind one bit.

"They tole me you were gonna die," the boy sobbed, "fuckin' ass liars!" RickyJo bit her lip to keep from laughing at the boy's coarse language. "I neva believed a fuckin' word of that shit Aunt Ricky! I knew you were gonna be fine!"

Once the boy got done snotting and slobbering all over the front of her, he quickly regained control of himself. He wiped at his face, suddenly looking very embarassed over his recent emotional outburst. He looked over RickyJo with a critcal eye, checking her to see if she was really as alright as she seemed. "God damn Aunt Ricky," he announced loudly, "you look like a skinny ass crack hoe!" RickyJo fought back her own laughter. She wasn't surprised that someone reprimanded the boy but she was completely shocked when she saw who it was.

"TOBY!," Merle hollered, "What in the fuckin' hell is wrong with ya?" Sometimes he didn't know what the hell went on inside that fucking idiot kid's head. Merle had a bad habit of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time but even he had more sense than to say something like that to a sick person.

"Sorry Aunt Ricky," Toby mumbled half heartedly before he turned and scampered down the ramp to the concrete below. To RickyJo's even greater shock the boy right over to the man that had just finished yelling and swearing at him and hugged him. That kid hugged Merle. And Merle was fucking hugging his ass back too. RickyJo scrubbed at her face with the palm of one hand, thinking she might have gone a lot crazier than people were letting on. Last thing she knew Merle didn't care much for people of the darker skinned variety. He didn't like kids either. And he hated being hugged. In fact RickyJo couldn't even remember ever seeing anyone except herself, Daryl, Jessica and her girls even get into his personal space without getting seriously injured.

If the hugging wasn't weird enough, now Merle was staring up at her with the most uncharacteristic expression on his face. She had seen that look before, but only when they were alone. Never in front of other people. Merle almost looked like he was ready to cry as hard as the boy that had just got done blubbering all over her. RickyJo felt an odd pull down in the bottom of her stomach. She wanted to go to him. The sensation wasn't altogether unplesant but she wasn't sure she trusted it either. Everyone thought you were going to die, RickyJo told herself, he's probably just happy you're alright. She took a step forward.

RickyJo made it about halfway down the ramp before both her knees buckled at once. She felt one foot slide off the edge of the thin metal plank and she prepared herself for the pain that was coming when she hit the hard concrete below. But instead she landed softly into the arms of the man she had been walking down to greet. The hard metal sleeve Merle had on over his arm was digging into the backs of her knees just slightly, but she was otherwise unharmed.

"Hey," she mumbled before she let her head droop onto his shoulder. Being in his arms felt good. She knew most people found Merle intimidating, but she had always felt safe and protected in his company. Unless he was high on something. Then all bets were off.

"Ya look tired," he told her, adjusting his hold on her so she was more comfortable in his arms. "How about I take ya home and you kin get some rest?" The fog in RickyJo's mind was swirling around again, odd unplaced memories flooding back in. Nothing made sense. But the word _home_ caught her attention. More than anything RickyJo wanted to go home. She wasn't sure she even had a home anymore.

"Yes," she whispered, "I wanna go home."


	43. Chapter 43

Five Minute Window

Chapter 43

She closed her eyes against the sunlight, which seemed to have somehow grow exponentially brighter than it had been a just a few moments before when she was shooting arrows off the high platform. The pounding in her head was making her dizzy and she clung tightly to Merle's shirt, afraid that the air around him was spinning as much as it was spinning around her and at any moment he might drop her and send them both crashing down onto the pavement.

She assumed she must have blacked out for a moment, because the next thing RickyJo knew she was being lowered gently down onto the soft cushions of a couch. The air around her was at least a few degrees cooler and she wiped at the beads of presperation that had broken out across her upper lip. A glass of juice was being shoved forcefully into her face and she pressed her head back into the cushions behind her, trying to get away from it.

"I told ya to give'er the juice, not force the shit down 'er throat," Merle hollered. RickyJo lifted her hand, taking hold of the glass and trying her best not to slosh juice all over the front of her shirt. People, mostly her cousin Jessica, were already treating her like she was some kind of invalid. Not being able to drink some juice without spilling it all over herself wasn't going to help. The boy, or maybe he was old enough to be considered a young man, that had been hugging her outside was the one that had been trying to force the juice on her. Toby, she reminded herself once again not to forget his name. His dark liquid eyes were full of fear and concern for her, so RickyJo lifted the glass and took a small sip to try and demonstrate to Toby that she was going to be alright.

The juice tasted a lot better than she thought it would. It smelled like some kind of fruit punch cocktail, sickeningly sweet with a lot of added sugar and food coloring. Like children's cold medicine. Not very appetizing. She had been ready to force herself to choke it down. It smelled bad but it tasted like heaven as the ice cold liquid slid down her parched throat. She lifted the glass in her hand and tipped it back, chugging down every last drop until there was nothing left, then wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Toby reached out and took the empty glass from her like she was child and he was the adult.

"More?," he asked. RickyJo simply nodded. She did want more. In fact if he could just bring the whole container of juice out and let her chug it, that would be perfect. When the boy reappeared with a large plastic container of juice, RickyJo realized she must have said what she was thinking out loud instead of only wishing it. The bottle of juice was still about three quarters of the way full. She twisted the plastic cap off and tossed it onto the small wooden coffee table in front of her. Keeping one hand on the side of the bottle, she put her other hand underneath the bottom of it to make sure the bottle didn't slip from her hands. Then she tilted it back and started chugging. She got about three good swallows in before someone tried to stop her.

"Ya better slow down on that before ya make yerself sick," Daryl told her. His hand came to rest gently on her wrist, pushing the bottle of juice down into her lap. "Take a breath," he added. RickyJo smiled up at him, wondering when he had suddenly become so concerned for her. She could remember chugging down what was left of a bottle of tequilla to get to the worm while Daryl cheered her on and then picked her up and threw her in the hot tub with all her clothes on. She found his new attitude sweet and even sort of comforting. It wasn't like him to get all paternal. Especially not with her. The thought that he was going to be a wonderful father floated through her mind and she felt herself smiling again.

"Let 'er alone," Merle hissed, stepping forward to smack Daryl's hand away from her wrist with an audible crack of skin against skin, "she's fuckin' thirsty let her drink." RickyJo gasped at the sudden noise, her body going tense as her knee jerked up to slam against the bottom of the juice bottle. This sent a splash of the red liquid splashing out and splattering across the table in front of her. It also splashed onto the front of her shirt, wetting it and taking with it her hoped of being able to complete the simple task of having a drink without making a mess of herself.

RickyJo brought her free hand up to scrub at her face before she tried shaking some of the liquid of the front of her shirt before it soaked in. She stared at the brothers, feeling confusion above all else. Merle and Daryl were circling each other like the wrong ends of two magnets that someone was trying to push together. They were hissing obscenities at one another. RickyJo felt like she was trapped inside of some sort of terrible nightmare. Not that the two brothers had never gotten into it before. But this wasn't some sort of playfight that the two of them had been wagering on beforehand. They looked ready to kill each other. It seemed like a very extreme reaction to her drinking some juice a little too fast.

RickyJo set her juice down on the table in front of her and started pushing herself up off the couch with what little strength was left in her arms. Jessica stepped in and shoved her back down against the cushions, ordering her to stay put. Then she darted around the small wooden table and pushed in between the two men. After shoving at Merle's chest to back him up she turned around and started corralling Daryl towards the door of the apartment.

"Go take a fuckin' walk Daryl!," Jessica hollered. "She needs to go down to medical anyway, so back off!" That last part got Daryl moving. He stopped in the doorway and thrust his middle finger in the air before he slammed the door behind him and stomped off down the hall. The sound of his boots slamming against the hard floor of the hallway slowly quieted until it disappeared with the sound of the outer door being slammed shut behind him.

"What's going on?," RickyJo asked, finally recovering from her shock enough to find her voice. Jessica ignored her question and held a hand out to the woman.

"Come on," Jessica said, "I've got to take you down to medical." RickyJo knitted her eyebrows together, staring at Jessica's outstretched hand like it was a snake that was ready to bite her. She wasn't exactly sure what _medical_ was, but it sounded like code for going to the doctor. And RickyJo hated going to the doctor more than she hated eating pizza without enough cheese on it. "Come on," Jessica bullied, grabbing for her cousin's hands and trying to forcibly remove her from the couch. He wasn't as rough as he had been with Daryl, but Merle elbowed in and forced Jessica back.

"You want to go to medical?," he asked. RickyJo shook her head. She wasn't sure of much, but she was sure of that.

"I want to stay here and drink my juice," she croaked, "And then I want someone to tell me what in the fuck is going on around here." She was confused about what was happening and her confusion only added to her anger at being talked to and treated like a baby by her younger cousin. She took care of Jessica. Not the other way around.

"She just fainted," Jessica protested, "she needs to be seen by a doctor!" Merle looked Jessica over. Her cheeks were beet red in splotches and she looked like she was bordering on throwing a full fledged fit. She was not going to be reasoned with, leaving him with only one option.

"Toby get the door," Merle ordered. The boy scurried to obey his command. Jessica tried to dart back but she was a few seconds too late. Merle seized her by the arm and dragged her right over to the door despite her loud angry protests about how he couldn't do this to her and how he better let go of her before she had someone named Morgan beat his redneck ass. Merle tossed her out into the hallway and slammed the door in her face. Then he locked it. And just for good measure he slammed the large chunk of wood in place that served as an extra safety measure in case the town was overrun with biters. Jessica pounded on the door and twisted at the door handle, but she must have quickly figured out that she wasn't getting in since after a few seconds RickyJo couldn't hear her squawking out in the hall anymore.

Merle crossed the room, slowing his movements down when he saw that RickyJo was cringing away from him. Her eyes were wide and she was watching his movements like a mouse would watch a cat. He picked the bottle of juice up off the table and handed it to her. He moved slowly, getting her a rag so she could clean off the juice that had splashed on her before. She took it without a word, still staring up at him with big wide eyes.

"You want anythin' else?," he asked her. RickyJo shook her head. Her juice and not to be manhandled by him was quite enough.

After shooing Toby from the room and into his own room to play video games or whatever the hell the kid did in there, Merle sat down on the couch. He sat as close to RickyJo as he dared without making her more afraid of him. As he was carrying her inside, Jessica had followed him and chirped a long streaming load of baloney in his ear. He had blocked most of it out, but he was sure he heard something about RickyJo having memory loss. This would explain the strange way she was acting towards him. He wondered how much she forgot. She seemed to know who everyone was at least.

RickyJo took a few more gulps of her juice before she set the bottle down on the table. Merle watched her. He knew what she was doing. She was observing him in the quiet way she had of sizing people up. Her hazel eyes flicked over his body, taking in the small details. He was sober. He had lost weight. There was more grey in the stubble on his face. Her eyes caught and lingered on the metal sleeve that covered his arm. Her eyes lingered but she didn't ask him what happened to his arm. Not yet anyway.

"Why are you and Daryl fightin'?," she asked. Her voice was rough, almost thick like how it sometimes got when she first woke up in the morning but even scratchier.

"How much do you remember?," Merle asked, answering her question with a question of his own.

"Enough that I am sick of answering that fuckin' question," she quipped. Merle snorted out a laugh. She might have memory loss but she was still herself. And still a pain in his ass. RickyJo pounded on her chest and tried to clear her throat. She grabbed for the juice and took another sip. Her throat was sore and it stung a little to keep talking, but she was not going to be deterred from the subject at hand. "Why are you and Daryl fighting?"

"Cause he wants what I got," Merle finally announced, a sly smile creeping across his face. RickyJo rolled her eyes at him. It was typical of Merle to act like a smug bastard at the worst possible times. She remembered enough to remember that too.

"And what is it that you've got?," she asked, not even sure if she wanted to know the answer. He was obviously toying with her and his answer was bound to be a bigger cock or something equally disgusting.

"I've got you," he said. This time there was nothing coy or playful about his tone as he spoke. The intensity in his gaze caused her to tear her eyes away from him and stare down at her lap. She didn't understand what he meant. And she was afraid to ask for a further explanation. Thankfully he offered up some more information without her having to demand it. "Yer my wife," he told her. There was a slight pause as he studied the expression on RickyJo's face. Momentary shock. Then she starting looking like she was about to get pissed at him for teasing her. He quickly added, "Don't believe me check the tattoo on your right hip."

RickyJo narrowed her eyes at him. She didn't have a ring on her finger, she had noticed that as soon as she got done peeing on that little white plastic stick. And when she had mentioned marriage to Daryl, he hadn't said one single word about her being married to someone else. And she didn't think Daryl would leave something like her marrying his brother out intentionally. The whole thing sounded beyond bizarre and she was having a hard time believing any of it. Especially the part about being married to Merle. Was it his baby she was pregnant with then? Her head was starting to pound again.

Leaning back, RickyJo started to roll down the waistband of her leggings. When she noticed Merle was leaning forward to get a look down her pants she yanked them back up. Pushing up and off the couch she walked a few feet away and turned her back to him before she pulled the front of her pants down and bared her hip, not caring that Merle was laughing at her for being a prude. RickyJo mumbled a few obscenities under her breath as she stared at the nautical star tattoo on her hip. Because there above it in Merle's neat even handwriting was his name, branded on her.

"Wanna see the one you put on me?," he offered. RickyJo shook her head, staring down at the tattoo a few more seconds before she yanked her leggings back up and pulled her stained shirt down over them. When she turned around Merle had a huge grin on his face. He patted his lap and then held his arms out for her like now that she had seen his name inked across her body her panties were just going to magically melt off. She sat back down on the opposite end of the couch from him and picked her juice back up, trying to pretend that she didn't see the wounded look on his face.

"Can I get a hug at least?," he asked, his tone filled with far more pleading and a lot less arrogance. It wasn't like him to beg for anything and there was no way she could say no even if she wanted to. Which she didn't. RickyJo bit her lip and nodded her head, leaning into him when he slid across the couch and gathered her into his arms. She hugged him back, but he could still feel the tension in her body. "Give it some time," he whispered, "you'll remember." RickyJo wasn't sure if he was trying to convince her or himself, but she allowed him to hold her a little while longer and nuzzle into the crook of her neck. It wasn't until he pressed his lips to hers that she pushed him back and away from her.

"Whoa," she cautioned, putting one palm flat against his chest to keep him from coming at her again. The room was starting to spin again and weird misplaced images were coming back to her in rapid fire like someone was shooting a machine gun of memories into her brain. Her head was pounding. Like someone was knocking on it. She ran her fingers through her hair, tugging at the roots in an attempt to center herself by concentrating on the pain in her scalp.

The pounding wasn't in her head. It was on the door to the apartment. Merle hollered for whoever it was to fuck off. But then he was up, unlocking the door and pulling it open. The old man that RickyJo had taken a swipe at earlier in the infirmary was standing in the doorway, a fresh bandage on his arm thanks to her.

"Hello RickyJo," the man said as he crossed the room. Despite her earlier attack he gave her a warm and sincere looking smile. "I see you're feeling a little better," the man commented. He sat down on the couch in the spot that Merle had vacated before he asked her if it was alright if he examined her and made sure she was doing alright. RickyJo wrinkled up her nose as she started at him. She really didn't want anyone poking and prodding at her. But she also horribly guilty about almost taking this nice old santa grandpa man's arm off earlier. So she sighed and nodded her head. The man smiled at her in a way that made her think this wasn't the first time he had talked her into a medical examination when she would rather not have had one.

"I'm not takin' my clothes off," she informed the man, ignoring Merle's snort of laughter. Hershel nodded. He took her blood pressure, listened to her heart and shined a very bright flashlight into her eyeballs while he asked her a series of questions that she did her best to answer even though she didn't think they were any of his business.

"Your iron is probably low," Hershel told her. He said that was why she was feeling so dizzy. Hershel pulled a large bottle of vitamins out of the black doctors bag he had brought with him. RickyJo was quick to take them and in exchange she gave him the first real smile Hershel had seen from her since she woke up. He could tell she was grateful to him. The bottle was full of prenatal vitamins and RickyJo knew she was going to need to take them if she wanted her baby to grow strong and healthy. Every time she thought about her baby she just couldn't help but feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

"Thank you," she croaked, debating on if it would be too soon to open the bottle and swallow one of the vitamins. The exam appeared to be done. But since Hershel was still lingering, RickyJo figured he must want something else from her. Her smile disappeared and she went back to eyeing him suspiciously. Hershel cleared his throat.

"I'm not going to force you," he started, giving Merle a sideways glance and hoping the man would help him with his request instead of objecting to it, "...but you were in and out of conciousness for over a month. I would like you to come back to the infirmary for the night so I can keep an eye on you."

"I can keep an eye on her," Merle interjected. He had been hovering over them the entire time Hershel was examining RickyJo. While RickyJo hadn't seemed bothered by it, the man had a way of getting into people's personal space that was just plain uncomfortable. And Daryl's brother or not, leaving a potentially still very sick woman alone with him made Hershel a little uneasy. Even if she was his wife or ex-wife or brother-in-law or whatever they were to each other that seemed to depend on what day of the week it was.

"Now Merle," Hershel chided, "you're not a doctor."

"Neither are you," Merle spit back, "Yer a damn vet." He pointed to RickyJo. "She ain't no cow." Merle shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He could see that he had offended Hershel. Normally he didn't care what he said to anyone. But Hershel was one of the few people that Merle genuinely liked and respected.

"I kin come and get ya right away if anythin' happens...," Merle added sheepishly, hoping to make a truce with the man. RickyJo glanced at the large and very comfortable looking bed on the other side of the room. It was piled high with pillows and looked like it was covered in expensive sheets. There was a nice big fluffy comforter on it, and an extra throw blanket draped across the foot of it. Compared to the terrible little cot with the hard mattress and scratchy unironed sheets she woke up on, there was no comparison. But there was something else to consider. Merle. She glanced back and forth from the bed to his hulking form. He told her that she was his wife. And he had already tried to kiss her. The idea of spending the night alone with him scared her a little.

"I...," she stammered, "I don't know." Merle noticed she was giving him her big eyed stare again, looking back and forth from him to the bed and nervously toying with the hem of her shirt. He leaned down and spoke quietly into her ear. What he had to say wasn't Hershel's business.

"I can sleep in Toby's room," he assured her, "Won't bother you unless ya need me for somethin'." RickyJo felt oddly touched by his gesture. It was very considerate of him and very much not like Merle at all. She reached her hand up, resting it on top of his and giving his hand a gentle squeeze.

"I think I'll stay here," RickyJo said, turning her attention back to Hershel. RickyJo expected the man to object but he simply nodded his head like he had expected her to say just that. Hershel gathered up his medical tools and gave Merle some simple instructions. Mostly it was just warning signs to watch for, like if she fainted again or if her speech suddenly became slurred, or if she had another panic attack. He suggested a few improvements on her juice only diet. Like to have some protien with her juice to keep her blood sugar stable. It all sounded reasonable enough to RickyJo. She figured even if the man was a vet and not a real doctor it ws fine since he still seemed to know what he was doing.

As soon as Hershel was out the door, Toby came bounding out of his room to throw his arms around RickyJo. She had forgotten the boy was within earshot and when she saw how happy he was to hear that she was staying she was very glad that she hadn't left.


	44. Chapter 44

Five Minute Window

Chapter 44

Hershel took a step back, his eyes lingering on the tension filled form of the man in front of him. He had already tried reminding Daryl again that he had only promised to try and bring RickyJo back to medical, he never intended to bring her here by force. That wouldn't be right. And what he didn't tell Daryl was that the best thing for her was to be somewhere she felt safe and comfortable. Hershel didn't say that because he didn't want to hurt the man anymore than he was already hurting. Instead he tried to calm Daryl down and keep him from going charging back over to have another fight with his brother. More fighting wasn't going to help anyone, least of all the woman Daryl seemed to be filled with concern for.

"She needs rest," Hershel coaxed, hoping that the thought of making RickyJo sicker might keep Daryl from doing anything rash. Hershel could see hard set of the other man's shoulders. The vein in his neck was pulsing. Daryl's fists were clenching and unclenching repeatedly as he paced nervously from one end of the small room to the other. Rick was leaning casually against the door frame and Hershel was grateful for his presence. If Daryl decided to take off, Hershel wasn't going to be able to do anything about it.

"Let her get some sleep and you can talk to her in the morning," Hershel added. From the way Daryl stopped his pacing and glared at him, Hershel could tell that had been the absolute possible worst thing to say.

Daryl shook his head, his hand coming up to shove the hair out of his eyes. The last thing he wanted to think about was RickyJo sleeping at his brother's apartment. Maybe even sleeping in the same bed with him. Letting him comfort her and take care of her and hold her in his arms like he had been outside by the wall when she stumbed and fell. It was bad enough that she was there alone with him. Daryl took one more look at Hershel before he turned on his heel and headed for the door.

"Ain't yer fuckin' business," he spit at Rick when the man moved his body to block Daryl from leaving, "this 'ere is family shit." Rick felt Daryl's hands collide with his chest, pushing hard against him. His cowboy boots slid backwards across the hard linoleum floor.

"You are my family," Rick reminded him. It was horrible for him to see Daryl hurting. He wanted to do nothing more than go charging over to Merle's apartment with Daryl and drag RickyJo out of there and force her down to the medical building. But that wasn't the right move. RickyJo always came off tough as nails. But the truth was that at the moment, she was nothing more than a very sick woman that had already been through too much even before she nearly died from the flu. Hershel said to let her be and Hershel knew best. And the other truth, the one that Rick didn't really want to admit because of his personal distaste for the man, was that Merle had every right to speak to RickyJo and spend some time with her. Aside from the one terrible fight that had gone on between the two of them back at the prison, Merle had never mistreated the woman. And she was technically still his wife whether she remembered it or not. Shane had tried to take Lori from Rick by force and that situation had ended badly for everyone involved.

"Get outta my way," Daryl huffed. He had taken his hands off Rick to avoid a physical confrontation with the man, but he was rapidly losing patience.

"Don't go over there," Rick pleaded.

"She said she wanted to stay there," Hershel added, feeling horrible about it even as the words dropped from his lips. He knew his statement was going to hurt Daryl, but if it kept the man from having another violent altercation with his brother Hershel decided it was worth it. The fight they had over her clothes and things was bad enough, Hershel didn't want to see how bad the fight would get over the woman herself.

"I'll go out huntin'," Daryl finally hissed, "I won't go over there. Just get the fuck outta my way." He couldn't stand to be in this tiny room anymore, hearing this bullshit. Of course RickyJo said she wanted to stay there. Merle was probably hanging over her practically moving her mouth like a puppetteer. That fucker was persuasive and he didn't have a shread of remorse when it came to using every manipulation tactic in the book to get what he wanted.

Rick moved, turning his body to allow Daryl to pass through the open doorway. He watched as the man slung his crossbow up onto his back and exited the medical facility. Rick fought the urge to follow him outside and make sure he was going where he said he was. He reminded himself that they didn't have the time or the manpower to babysit Daryl 24/7. They just had to trust that he was going to do what he said he was. And beyond that he secretly hoped like he always hoped, that RickyJo would find some sense in her head and chose Daryl over his brother. To Rick it seemed like an obvious and easy choice. Daryl was clearly the better man. Then again he had been a better man than Shane. And that hadn't stopped Lori from sleeping with him about five seconds after she gave him up for dead. And maybe even before that. Rick sighed, feeling guilty again for being relieved that Lori was dead and Shane was dead and that the whole mess was over and done with. He had Beth now. And he trusted her more than he had ever trusted Lori.

TWD

The light was fading quickly, painting the evening sky in shades of copper and reddish purple. Daryl knew it wasn't safe to be out alone after dark. It wasn't even really safe to be out alone. Not even for him. Still he trudged on through the woods, letting the leaves crunch under his boots as he shouldered through the low hanging tree branches.

Part of him knew he could get to where he was going while there was still enough light to see by. But another part of him was hoping that he wouldn't. That maybe something bad would happen to him out here in the woods. Some sort of terrible accident. He pictured it in his mind, how upset RickyJo would be if she found out her actions caused him to rush off senselessly and become hurt or killed. Maybe if he was gone, she would finally realize how much he really meant to her.

The low moan of a walker caught Daryl's attention. It was shuffling along a few feet to the right of him, already headed in his direction. For just a moment he thought about just keeping still and letting it come for him. But opting out just wasn't his way. He kept still only long enough for the walker to get close enough for him to take it out with his hunting knife. He stabbed it hard, shoving his knife in through the eye socket hard enough to send the rotting corpse floppping to the ground with him on top of it. Once it was down he ripped his knife back out and stabbed the dead remains of what had once been a man a few more times, working out his frustrations on the thing instead of going back to Woodbury and taking them out on his brother.

With his anger spent, Daryl tucked his knife away in his belt and wiped his hands off on his pants. In the last few hours he felt like he had been through the entire gamut of human emotions. That would have taken a toll on anyone, but on a man that usually kept his feeling buried deep down inside where he felt they belonged it was particularly exhausting. He still wasn't sure how to wrap his head around everything that was happening.

When RickyJo woke up without any memory of what had happened over the last year, Daryl felt like someone hit the reset button on his life. She had looked at him the way she used to look at him, before she and Merle got stranded in Atlanta. Before she had been believing in him and waiting on him to come for her. Before he had gone to the CDC with Rick instead and never showed up. They had made up after that. They had been friends again after that. She had even slept with him again after that. But things were never really the same between them.

There was always a strange emotional distance between them that Daryl hadn't had the slightest idea how to cross. He hadn't even been totally sure if it was really there, or if he was just imagining it until it was gone and RickyJo had been looking at him the way she used to look at him. Like he was the only person she ever really trusted and it was the two of them against the world. It was the same look she used to get when she would come stomping in from a long day at work, whipping her suit jacket off her shoulders and kicking her pinching dress shoes off her feet on her way to the couch to sit next to him. Sometimes she would snag the beer right out of his hand and take a few long swallows as she pulled her long hair down from the bun she kept it in for work.

The smell that would waft off her hair when she shook the waves out of it was just about the best thing Daryl had ever smelled in his whole life. It was like driving through a field of peaches on a warm summer night with the windows of his truck rolled down. Or maybe it was more like a summertime hayfield that had just been cut. She always smelled more piney than other girls, like the woods clung to her even though she had showered several times since the last time she had been out hiking or hunting. On the few occasions that he had ended up sleeping in her room, her entire bed had smelled like that. The end of the world hadn't taken it away either. Even living in the prison RickyJo's scent had lingering on his pillows and in his blankets long after she crept from his room and climbed back into her own bed.

The loud snapping crack of a branch breaking brought Daryl out of his thoughts. He grabbed for his knife, assuming it was just another mindless walker.

"We're fuckin' lost again."

Daryl froze. Walkers didn't talk. He gripped his knife and lowered his body to the ground, sliding closer to the cover of a nearby bush. There wasn't much light left in the sky, but there was still enough for a man to be seen by someone that was looking.

The sound of crunching boots got closer, pausing just on the other side of the bush Daryl was hiding near. He listened closely, trying to get some idea of how many people he was up against.

"We ain't lost," a second voice said, chiming in to argue with the first man that had spoken, "the cabin's right up ahead ya dumbass." Since the two arguing men had stopped walking to argue, Daryl was fairly sure he counted the footsteps of at least two more people walking up after them. He thought about reaching for his bow and stringing and arrow, but given the pile of crumbly leaves he was lying in, he decided to keep still.

Daryl was still concentrating on the men near him when he was distracted by a low hiss. Flicking his eyes to his left he sucked in his breath. Only a few inches away from his face was a three foot long copperhead snake. Daryl felt his whole body go tense. Every part of him wanted to get away from the snake, but he knew he couldn't without revealing his location to the group of strange men that were standing only inches away. He couldn't take on four men by himself and he couldn't run without risking them following him back to Woodbury.

The snake hissed again, disturbed by the loud voices and stomping boots of the men on the other side of the bush. Daryl forced himself to take slow even breaths as he felt the long body of the reptile slither across his lower back. He fought back a dry gag as the leathery body of the snake came into contact with the exposed skin on his lower back where his shirt had been rucked up when he flattened himself against the ground to hide.

After what seemed like a thousand years but was probably more like a few minutes, the men stopped arguing and headed off in the direction of the cabin Daryl had been heading for himself. He felt another shiver ripple up his spine as the thought of what might have happened if they caught him alone in the cabin. It had been a few weeks since Daryl had been out to the quiet little shack he and Michonne had found when he had taken her out to try and teach her how to hunt rabbits. The place was a dump, but the shed outside it was full of moonshine. Daryl told Rick he was going hunting, but really he had been planning on coming to the cabin he found and drinking until he forgot his problems or passed out, whichever happened first.

Twisting violently to the right Daryl's hand shot out. He grabbed the snake by what would be considered the neck part if snakes had parts. The long reptile twisted and thrashed in his grasp, it's mouth opening to reveal two wicked fangs that were already dripping with venom. Afraid that he might lose his grip on the snake if he fumbled for his knife, Daryl squeezed down on the animals throat instead. Crushing down with the power of both his hands, Daryl held on until the snake's body went completely limp and little riveletes of the snakes blood were dripping down over his fingers and wrists. In the fading light, the red blood looked black and rotten like walker blood.

Whipping the dead reptile away from him, Daryl wiped his bloody hands off on the shirt of the walker he had killed a few minutes before. He fought the urge to return to town. After almost being caught and possibly killed by strangers, then almost being bitten by a poisonous snake, the fight he had been having with Merle seemed stupid and maybe even a little petty. Not that he didn't still want RickyJo for himself, but he also wished he could make things right with his brother again. But first Daryl knew he had to follow those men and find out what they were up to.


	45. Chapter 45

Five Minute Window

Chapter 45

Hershel the veterinarian doctor left. Merle shut and re-locked the door behind him but the large chunk of wood that looked meant to stop a riot was not put back into place across the middle of the door. RickyJo felt a little of her tension release since she no longer felt trapped inside the unfamilar apartment with a man that seemed as strange and foreign as her surroundings.

The apartment itself was unfamiliar. But as she looked closer, taking more notice of the furnishings around her, things were starting to feel more recognizable. She was sure that the sheets on the bed were either from her old apartment in Atlanta or had come from the same company she had ordered hers from. Since neither Merle or the boy had said she couldn't, RickyJo got up and walked around the large space. She opened drawers and peeked inside, trying to familiarize herself with her surroundings. Hoping that she might find or see something that would trigger her and bring part of her memory back. But so far it felt like the more she tried to remember, the more it just made her head hurt.

Inside a large dresser she found a lot of clothes that she was sure belonged to her. She didn't recognize each individual piece of clothing, but all of it looked like items she would have picked out for herself and all the items were her size. She smiled when she found one of her old college tshirts inside, the one she loved to sleep in despite the fact that she had worn it basically to tatters. It had a hole in one armpit and the neck was ripped on one side.

The shirt she was currently wearing had juice spilled on it. RickyJo took a cautious glance around her, taking a few steps to her left to shield herself from Merle's line of vision. Then she pulled the shirt she was wearing off and yanked her University of Georgia tshirt down over her head. Her hair got caught inside the neck of the shirt and she pulled it loose with one hand. Since she didn't see anywhere to dispose of her dirty laundry she took a few tentative steps out towards the main living area of the apartment with her stained shirt in hand.

"Where...," she croaked, stopping to clear her throat again, "where does the dirty laundry go?" Merle was quick to leap up from the seat on the couch he had settled into, taking the shirt from her hands.

"I kin get that," he offered. He walked over by the door and deposited the shirt into a large basket that looked to be about half full of dirty clothing. "Yer slippers are under the bed," he added.

After casting a suspicious glance in his direction, RickyJo crept back near the large bed and peeked underneath. She found that there was a very comfortable looking pair of slippers under the bed. They were fleece on the insides but had hard rubber soles on the bottoms, in case she wanted to walk outside in them. Toeing off the shoes Jessica had provided her with she slipped her feet into the slippers. They not only fit, she was sure that they were hers. The fleece was crushed down in the exact spots under her feet that she tended to carry her weight.

RickyJo was still hesitant to believe the story Merle had told her about the two of them being married. But all the evidence she was finding in his apartment led her to the conclusion that he had been telling the truth. Married or not it was obvious she lived here. With him. There were even a few of her favorite books piled up on the side of the bed that she liked to sleep on. She could see her taste in the way the apartment was decorated and furnished. She still didn't understand why Daryl hadn't said something to her about it right away but she supposed she could ask him about that the next time she saw him.

Merle didn't stare, but he watched RickyJo. She had a hunter's way of walking. Even inside the apartment she moved silently through the place, her keen eyes scanning. Merle had brought her things to his apartment as a romantic gesture. His way of saying he was sorry and telling her how much she meant to him. Little did he know that it would end up being the best thing he could have done for himself. Daryl could tell whatever her whatever story he wanted. But it was going to be hard to dispute that fact that she lived in this apartment when all her things were here, put away in the dresser right next to his things. Sure Merle had put them there. But that was only after she took him back and agreed to be his wife and live with him again. He wasn't lying about that and he didn't give a shit if Daryl, or anyone else for that matter, thought he was.

RickyJo padded back out in her slippers and sat down on the couch, tucking her legs under her and reaching for the jar of peanut butter that Merle had sent Toby to get from a cabinet for her since Hershel said she needed protein. She dipped her spoon into the jar, getting a large scoop of the salty butter and licking at it like it was a popscicle. After she finished a second scoop she sat the tub back down on the table and leaned her head against the arm of hers that was draped across the back of the couch.

RickyJo stared at Merle a while without speaking and he found it hard not to shift his body self conciously under her observation. She started down at his toes, letting her eyes drift slowly up until they were locked on his. Her gaze wasn't predatory. It wasn't even sexual. She was simply observing him in the quiet way she had of taking things in and computing them in her mind. He had seen her do it to enough strangers to know that she was able to gain a lot of information that way. From a simple glance she could usually tell how long people had been on the road and whether or not she thought she could trust them. And she was almost always right. Except when it came to the governor. Even RickyJo had trusted that con artist at first. Just thinking about him made Merle clench his jaw, the muscles on the sides of his face twitching.

RickyJo sighed and relaxed the intensity of her gaze. She blinked her eyes, leaving them closed for a fraction of a second longer than they needed to be. Merle knew her well enough to know from this and the posture of her body that she was tired. He also knew her well enough to know that if he announced his opinion and suggested that she go to bed she would not only do nothing of the sort, she would get fucking pissed off at him for coddling her. So he said nothing and waited for her to ask him whatever she was mulling over in her mind.

"I really live here?," she asked with another sigh, "With you?" Merle nodded, not able to stop himself from smiling. RickyJo always liked living with him before. He knew if she gave it a little time, she would see she liked it again. Merle had been expecting that question. It was her next one that took him by surprise. "Are you always so nice to me?," RickyJo asked. Since she got here, Merle had been practically falling all over himself tending to her every need. It was so opposite to the way she was used to him acting that it was unsettling. When he took her shirt and put it in the laundry for her she was sure she had wandered into the twilight zone.

"We fight sometimes," he admitted. RickyJo wasn't stupid. If he told her everything between them was peaches and roses between them she would know he was lying. The corners of her mouth twitched up. It wasn't much, but a tiny smile was a start.

"What do we fight about?," she asked. She was twirling a long section of her hair around her fingers, twisting it like rope and tugging at it. Merle bit at his lip before he could blurt out the truth. They fought about Daryl. They fought about her getting raped by the governor. That's what they fought about. He didn't want to tell her that. So he knew making a joke to deflect her question was his best bet.

"Well yer a real sex addict," he told her, his hand moving down to grab at the bulge in his pants, "always trying to get a piece of ole Merle. I've gotta fight yer horny ass off daily." RickyJo's mouth fell open, the look on her face making it obvious that for just a slit second she was taking him completely seriously. Then she snorted out a grunt of indignation. After that she started to laugh. She couldn't even defend her own honor. That's how hard she was laughing. It felt so good to laugh that she didn't want to stop.

A hard knock on the door brought their conversation to an abrupt hault. Merle motioned for her to stay seated before she could even think about getting up. But he hadn't failed to notice the hopeful excitement on her face as her head turned towards the closed door. Merle wasn't stupid. He knew she was waiting for Daryl to come back. She used to get that exact same look on her face back when they were still all living together in her apartment in Atlanta. On Fridays she never had classes to teach. She would disappear for a little while in the morning before coming back home to sit on the couch and read a book. This was code for sit in the living room and wait for Daryl to get home from work. Every time she heard the elevator in their building she would look up from her book with that exact same look on her face.

"Merle," Jessica called in from the hallway, "Let me in you asshole!" Merle sighed and cracked the door open a fraction of an inch, blocking it with his foot from opening any wider.

"Ya start up with her again 'bout going to the medical center and I will throw yer ass right back out," he informed the woman. RickyJo sat on the couch and watched the interaction, feeling more amused and less afraid than she had been earlier when Merle had gripped her cousin by the arm and forcibly removed her from the apartment. After a few curses and back and forth threats, Jessica gained entrance to the apartment. RickyJo's neices were both with her, along with black man and a boy that looked a little younger than Cassie. As they walked in, RickyJo leaned to look around behind them, hoping Daryl was part of her group of visitors.

"Daryl went hunting," Jessica told her, throwing Merle a look of disgust. RickyJo nodded, grateful for the information but confused about why Daryl would choose this particular day to go hunting instead of spending time with her. He had seemed so happy to see her earlier. She thought she felt it when they kissed. But maybe she misread him. "I thought I could make you some dinner at least," Jessica added, eager to change the subject, "I brought venison lion and some veggies from the garden." RickyJo nodded and thanked her, smiling when she saw the man that was with Jessica kissed her gently on the cheek after he finished helping her unpack the items from a well worn cloth sack.

The man was Morgan. He introduced himself to RickyJo without her having to ask. His son was Duane. RickyJo liked the man right away. He was different from Jessica's usual taste in men. Different in a good way. He and Merle seemed to like each other, which surprised RickyJo. He usually tried to beat the tar out of any of Jessica's boyfriends that had the misfortune to come into contact with him.

Dinner was as good as it smelled. RickyJo was disappointed that despite feeling ravenously hungry she was only able to eat about a third of what was on her plate. Toby was happy to finish her food for her and one he got done inhaling her food along with his own he darted in and hugged her tightly, resting his wooly head against her shoulder. RickyJo barely got a chance to hug him back before he was running off with Duane and the girls to take his dog out for a evening walk. The dog had shown up during the middle of dinner, barking outside the door to the apartment to be let in. After running a few laps around the apartment it settled down under Toby's chair and waited for the scraps he would inevitably drop down for it to gobble up.

With the kids gone, the conversation took a more serious turn. RickyJo just listened, her chin resting on her palm as she struggled to keep her eyes open. Morgan and Merle were talking about food storage and how many hunting trips they wanted to try and make before the weather turned. RickyJo reached across the table with her free hand, taking Jessica's hand in hers and giving it a gentle squeeze. Jessica squeezed back, Then she suggested to Morgan that they ought to be making their way home before curfew. They were let out of the apartment and shortly after, Toby and his dog returned. Toby gave her a warm smile before he and his dog headed to his room to retire for the night.

RickyJo forced herself to her feet and scrubbed at her face, looking around the room and trying to figure out where she was going to be sleeping. Merle rested his hand on her lower back, guiding her over to the bed and pulling the covers back for her. She hesitated a moment before climbing in.

"I don't want to put you out of yer own bed," she admitted, turning to face him, "Maybe I should just sleep on the couch."

"Yer not sleepin' on the damn couch," he said, the conviction strong in his voice. He would sleep on the floor before he let her sleep anywhere but a comfortable bed after everything she had been through. She was swaying, ready to fall asleep where she stood. So he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her agasint his chest, trying his best not to think about how much thinner she felt and how close had he come to losing her. "I'd like to sleep with ya, if you'll let me," he told her, planting a kiss on the top of her head. The truth was he wanted to hold her worse than he had wanted anything in a very long time. How sweet and snuggly she was acting now that she was dead tired just made him want to climb into bed with her even more.

RickyJo thought about what Merle was asking her. Like everything else he had done for her that day, asking to sleep in bed with her seemed so unlike him. Not that they never slept together. He had crashed in her bed at least twice before that RickyJo could remember. Both times were after a party when people had passed out in her spare bedroom and left him without a place to sleep. And he had never asked her so nicely before. In fact she could distictly remember him booting her in the ass with one hard foot until she moved over and then climbing into her bed without asking at all.

She had woken up in the morning with her head on his broad chest and one long leg draped across his waist. His body radiated heat when he slept and instead of being embarrassed about their little cuddle session she remembered being so warm and comfortable tucked in next to him that she didn't want to get out of bed to pee. Later she put two and two together. The only times Merle had slept with her were when he had some of his biker friends over to party. She never asked him about it, but she had always wondered if it was just coincidence or if he had slept with her to make sure no one else got the idea that they might try to. Protected. That's how she felt with him in her bed. And that's how she felt now in his arms.

"No funny busssiness," she slurred. Merle didn't answer. Instead he just climbed into the bed and pulled her in beside him. She fell asleep to the feel of him gently stroking his hand over her hair and right before she passed into oblivion she was sure she heard him whispering that he loved her.


	46. Chapter 46

Five Minute Window

Chapter 46

Daryl walked as silently as the fading light would allow. He knew he was following at least four men and he had no idea how large their group was. Stalking through the woods in the direction they had gone, Daryl was soon able to pinpoint their location by the sounds of their voices. It turned out all his stealth was completely unecessary. The men had met up with a slightly larger group, maybe seven men total depending on how many more of them were inside the small dumpy looking shack they were camped out in. But all of them appeared to be either completely intoxicated or intent on getting that way as quickly as possible.

Daryl circled the place first, making sure that no one was going to be able to sneak up behind him and get the jump on him. Next he chose his vantage point. Behind a large bushy tree that provided him good cover while still allowing him to see everything that was going on. If he got spotted he had already decided he would head away from town and then double back. If these men didn't know where Woodbury was then the last thing he wanted to do was lead them there.

The men were getting drunker and louder as the minutes passed. They had a female walker tied to a tree that Daryl hoped had already been dead when they put it there. But from the general lack of decomposition on the body, Daryl doubted it. There was no way that walker had been dead more than a day or two at the most. The body was of a younger woman. If Daryl had to guess he would say she was maybe Beth's age or a little older. There was a lot of dried blood on her arms and she looked like she had probably died from the large jagged cuts that were visible on her wrists.

One of the man stepped forward and poked at the walker, illiciting a hiss and a snap of her teeth in response. He jumped back and a few of the other men laughed at him. To prove he wasn't afraid the man stepped forward and punched the pitiful creature in the face, snapping its head to the side. One of the other men started complaining about the situation.

"You were supposed ta be watchin' her Lem," he hollered, talking far too loudly. Daryl thought about making a run for it, concerned the noisy men might draw in more walkers than he wanted to deal with in the dark. But he hesitated, still wanting to watch the men a while longer. Daryl wasn't sure what he was waiting for. Maybe for one of them to do something incriminating enough that he would feel justified in going back to town and getting a team together to come back out and kill them. "I claimed first dibs on her tonight and now jus' look at 'er."

"I was watchin' to make sure she didn't get away," a man with shaggy brown hair and an unkept beard that Daryl assumed must be Lem hollered back, "didn't know she was gonna off her damn self." This brought on another chorus of laughter from the drunken men.

A man with gray hair got up from his seat on the porch and staggered over towards the tree that Daryl was hiding behind. For a moment Daryl was scared the man had spotted him but then the man unzipped his pants to relieve himself. Wrinkling his nose up Daryl tried to decide which smelled worse, the man or his urine. Once he was done taking what seemed like the longest piss in history, the man staggered over to the tree where the female walker was tied up. He pulled out a knife and cut her loose.

"Its not too late," he guffawed, "go ahead and have yer turn." With that he kicked the walker towards his compaion that had made the original complaint. The man let out a very unmanly shriek and stumbled backwards, trying to get away from the creature. Daryl found himself wishing one of the men might get bit by the walker they were toying with. But that didn't happen. After messing around with it for a few minutes, one of the men stepped forward with a shovel, slamming the walker in the knees one at a time until it was left crawling and dragging itself around on the ground.

When the gray haired man stepped forward with a knife Daryl let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, relieved that the poor creature's suffering was going to come to an end. He didn't usually have much pity for walkers, but he did have some for the poor woman that had the misfortune to spend the last few days of her life in what Daryl guessed was some enough agony and pain to make her slit her wrists with a dull blade. But the man with the gray hair did not have mercy for the woman on his mind. Instead of plunging his knife into the walker's skull, he used the blade to cut through the raggedy looking dress she had on. The woman wore nothing beneath the garment and her thighs and hips were covered in dried blood and bruises. There was a tribal tattoo across the woman's lower back right above her ass and the sight of it shot a shiver up Daryl's spine despite the warmth of the still night air. The thought of what men like this might do to RickyJo or any of the other women that he now considered family made his stomach clench.

"She still looks fresh enough to me," the man joked, nudging between the walker's thighs with the toe of his black work boot. When the walker thrashed and tried to roll over on its back in an attempt to get at him he lifted his leg and stomped down on the top of it's back, holding it in place. With his suddenly enthusiastic friends to cheer him on, the mant that had been hollering and stumbling away from the walker only moments before stepped forward and began to unfasten his pants.

Daryl knew he ought to look away. What he was about to see was the most disgusting if not the most disturbing thing he had seen since the beginning of the turn. But he felt a bit like he was driving past a terrible car crash. He just couldn't look away. He watched as the man mounted the walker, huffing and groaning as he thrust himself inside what was left of the woman's insides.

"Gone serve ya right if yer damn dick rots off," one man suggested with a laugh. The man that was humping the walker held up his middle finger towards his companion and increased the speed and force of his thrusts while he hollered that the woman had more fight in her now that she was dead than she had when she was alive.

Daryl had seen enough. With his hand over his mouth he forced himself to move slowly and carefully. Once he was far enough away to avoid being heard he leaned against a tree and vomitted until there was nothing left inside him. Sinking down to the ground, he crossed his arms over his knees and rested his head on them. He stayed that way until all the noise from the man at the cabin died down and he was sure they had gone inside to pass out. Then he crept quietly back to the small clearing near the front porch.

The walker was still there, hissing and clawing at the leaves. Daryl lifted his crossbow and took aim. He put the walker down with a single arrow through the skull. For a moment he thought about leaving his arrow there to make the men wonder who had been there watching them. The thought that it might scare them a little was appealing. But he reached down and took his arrow back. If they got spooked the men might leave the cabin. And Daryl wanted them right there waiting for him when he came back.

TWD

She was wearing uncomfortable shoes that pinched her baby toes on both feet. Ones with high heels. The kind RickyJo almost never wore unless she was going somewhere really special. And from the looks of it, she wasn't anywhere special. A man with a patch over his eye grabbed her and pinned her down on a table. The tines of a fork were digging into her back. He ripped the cheap dress she was wearing and she started to scream.

Merle jolted from bed, woken by the sound of RickyJo sreaming bloody murder. She was thrashing around in the bed like she was fighting someone that wasn't there. He tried shaking her first, yelling at her to wake up. She was having a dream and from the looks of it she was having a terrible one. When he grabbed her, her hazel eyes flew open. Still locked into the middle of her nightmare she took a swing at him. Her fist glanced off Merle's jaw. Before she could take better aim he grasped her by her wrist and yanked her up into his arms, pinning her against his chest with his bad arm as best he could.

"Yer safe, yer safe," he mumbled, trying to keep from being head butted, "it's jus' me, I ain't gonna hurt ya."

Toby came flying out of his room in his boxer shorts with a huge gun in his hands. Snoop the dog was close behind him, looking for someone to bite.

"What's wrong," the boy asked, looking with no small amount of concern at the scene in front of him.

"She's havin' a nightmare," Merle yelled, "keep that damn dog back!" Toby made a grab for the dog but he was too late. The animal landed on the bed with a flying leap. Snoop growled, looking back and forth from Merle to RickyJo, trying to decide which one of them he wanted to nip at. Undecided as to who was the aggressor, the dog sat back began to howl at full volume. Just when Merle thought it couldn't get any worse he realized RickyJo had stopped fighting him. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the howling dog. Pulling away from his grasp she held her arms open for the animal.

"It's okay Chips," she soothed, running her hands over Snoop's fluffier parts. The frightened dog had rushed into her open arms without hesitation. "I'm not hurt," she assured the dog, "It's alright."

"That's not Chips," Toby corrected, "Chips was the dog that..." A hard glance from Merle stopped the boy mid sentence. "Chips was our old dog," Toby announced, leaving out the grisly details of Chips death for the time being, "This one is Snoop." RickyJo nodded. She didn't correct herself, choosing instead to hug the dog against her chest to try in an attempt to stop her body from shaking.

"Alright," Merle said, "Time for Snoop to get down." The dog was not only filthy it was probably seconds away from either humping RickyJo or taking a giant dog shit on the bed. RickyJo released the dog and Merle gave him a hard shove off the bed and onto the ground. Toby called the dog over towards the door so he could snap on Snoop's leash and take him outside. Once the door shut RickyJo looked down at her hands and saw that her entire body was still trembling.

As best as he could with only one good hand, Merle yanked the blankets up around her. She pulled them tighter and gave him a forced smile before clamping her lips together to stop the bottom one from quivering. Merle climbed over her, stopping once he was on his feet next to the bed to rub at her back. He gave her one more rough caress before he crossed the room and started rummaging around in one of the cupboards. He wasn't wearing a shirt and RickyJo couldn't remember if she had climbed into bed with him when he was half dressed or if he had gotten himself that way after she fell asleep. The scars on his back were visible in the light from the lamp that Toby had clicked on. His feet were bare and he was wearing plaid pajama bottoms that hung low on his hips. RickyJo caught herself staring at the soft looking trail of hair that started just under his belly button and led down into the waistband his pants. In the back recesses of her mind she remembered that he liked being kissed there and that knowledge of that fact made her cheeks hot.

"This'll calm yer nerves," Merle told her as he held a glass with two fingers full of what smelled like expensive whiskey under her nose. RickyJo took the glass, eager for the mind numbing effects that the alcohol would provide. She had the glass halfway to her lips when her hand jerked to a stop so suddenly that a little trickle of the liquid sloshed out and ran down over the back of her hand.

"I can't drink this," she said, shoving the glass back at Merle before she was even more tempted to chug it down and worry about the consequences later.

"Who cares what Hershel said," Merle countered, "One little drink ain't gone kill ya."

"It's bad for the baby," RickyJo argued before she could think to stop herself. Everyone seemed to know everything about her before she even knew it so she hadn't stopped to think that Merle might not be aware of the fact that she had woken up pregnant.

Merle's face went pale. He took the glass of whiskey that RickyJo was pushing back into his hand and tossed its contents down his own throat. The glass dropped from his hand and hit the floor with a clunk as he sat down hard on the side of the bed. RickyJo clutched the blankets, pulling them tighter around her shoulders as she stared at the man in front of her. She wasn't sure what she expected Merle's reaction to her pregnancy to be. If she was really honest she hadn't expected more than a few rude jokes or maybe an offer of congratulations. Merle looked like he was about to faint or throw up or maybe both.

"Yer keeping this one?," he asked. He lifted his bad arm to scrub at his face, dropping it back into his lap once he realized there wasn't a hand on the end of it. Swapping out, he lifted his good hand and rubbed at the stubble on his chin.

To say that Merle was the type of man that kept his feelings to himself was a vast understatement. He kept them buried down so deep that half the time he himself didn't even know how he was feeling. After RickyJo got rid of the baby she was pregnant with back when the governor had still been in control of Woodbury, Merle told himself it was for the best. But as the time passed he found thoughts would creep into his mind every so often. Usually when he was working on some mindless task. Thoughts about the baby that never was. What it might have looked like. If it would have been a boy or a girl. He had given up on the idea of having kids as a lost cause. RickyJo was too afraid to have them in the new world and he hadn't had even a notion of the slightest idea of how to change her mind about it.

"This one?," RickyJo asked, feeling confused.

"Are ya keepin' it or not?," he asked, the words coming out a little harsher than he intended. RickyJo shifted her body away from him and nodded.

"I'm keeping it," she said. She hadn't even considered another possibility until that moment. Her voice shaking as badly as her body had been a few moments before she asked quietly, "Were we going to have another baby before this?" Merle nodded. He didn't trust himself to even look at RickyJo for fear that he might start crying like some kind of little bitch.

"You took some pills to get rid of it," he explained. His voice had gone thick, much thicker and deeper than it normally was. RickyJo had the urge to drop the blanket that was wrapped around her shoulders and wrap her arms around him but she wasn't sure if he wanted her to touch him. "You were scared," he added, "Ya didn't think I could keep you and the baby safe."

"That's not true," RickyJo countered, not needing her memory to know that what Merle said could never be true. She wiped the tears from her eyes with the corner of the blanket. All the doubts she had earlier about her and Merle and the things he had told her about them being married were gone from her mind. She could tell from the raw emotion on his face that they had clearly had some sort of real relationship. Something deeper and more meaningful than just sex or even friendship.

"How do you know," Merle mumbled, "ya can't remember shit." Merle turned his gaze on her, his sadness and regret turning into anger as his emotions had a bad habit of doing. "It's like dealing with a fuckin' retard."

Anger was easy to deal with. The other shit not so much. He expected RickyJo to shrink back from his nasty remark like she had earlier when he tossed Jessica out of the apartment. But this time she held her ground, the hazel in her eyes turning an icy steel blue. The blanket dropped back off her shoulders and she crossed her arms under her breasts. RickyJo was the only woman he ever encountered that wasn't scared to stand her ground with him if she thought he was being an ass. Which he usually was. Why this particular trait of hers was such a turn on for him was something he had never quite figured out. Merle's short lived anger was quickly giving way to the throbbing need to possess her.

"I remember enough to know when yer being a horse's ass," RickyJo announced. Merle snorted out a laugh before he could stop himself. Before she had time to react, he reached over and seized RickyJo by the back of her neck, dragging her forward so her could press his lips down on hers. He felt her relax into the kiss. Just a little but it was enough to convince him that she liked it. That didn't stop her from smacking him a good one across his face once he pulled back. Merle fought the urge to lunge at her, reminding himself that she didn't remember enough to know that foreplay between them often started with her slapping at him and ended with RickyJo being pinned beneath him as they ripped at each other's clothes.

"Mmsorry," he offered, hoping to stop the argument. Getting up, Merle retrieved the glass he had dropped to the floor and headed over the the cupboard for a refill. He had to give himself a little space from RickyJo before he did something crazy. Having her here again was like having her back from the dead. There was nothing more he wanted to do than take her into his arms. But he didn't want to feel like he was forcing her.

RickyJo watched the slight sag of his shoulders as he walked. "I'm sorry too," she said. And she realized once the words came out that she really meant them. "I'm sorry for everything."


	47. Chapter 47

Five Minute Window

Chapter 47

The morning followed the night as mornings have a tendency to do. The end of the world had not altered many things but it had not changed that. RickyJo woke up feeling a hundred times better than she felt day before. There were still pieces of her memory missing. But her head had stopped pounding and her thoughts were much more clear than they had been when she woke up in the infirmary. She didn't feel like her normal self again yet but she was starting to feel human again. Reaching across with her arm, she found the other side of the bed empty and she had to fight the urge to roll over into the middle of it and go back to sleep.

Out of all her belongings that had been neatly folded and put away in the drawers of dressers and hug in closets, the one thing she seemed to be missing was a ponytail holder. Sitting up, RickyJo ran her hands down over her hair in an attempt to smooth out some of the tangles and wild waves that had rumpled up around her face while she slept. She tossed off the covers and swung her legs out of bed. Lifting up on her tiptoes, she thrust her fists into the air and stretched her body out the way a cat might after waking from a long nap.

"Sleep good?"

The question came from close behind her and the sudden gruff words startled her. RickyJo hadn't realized anyone else was in the apartment besides her and Merle and maybe Toby, neither of which she had seen or heard from since she woke. She turned, assuming a defensive posture. But when she saw that it was only Daryl standing there she relaxed. Her face lit up into a big smile and she nodded. She couldn't remember much and definitely couldn't remember the last time she had slept so well or stayed in bed so late. After the conversation she had with Merle in the middle of the night RickyJo had made herself a nice big mug of chamomile tea and lain in bed sipping it and listening to Merle's low tone whisky snores until she was so tired she couldn't keep her eyes open.

"Hey handsome, I missed you after you left yesterday," she told Daryl, covering her mouth to hide a yawn as the last few words stretched out. Her sweet compliment and the beautiful smile on her face almost made Daryl forget how angry he was with her. When she padded forward on her bare feet to wrap her arms around his neck it took all the willpower he had in order to keep his body stiff and not show her any physical affection in return. RickyJo let go of him and stepped back. Her hurt feelings and confusion were showing plainly on her face. "What's wrong?," she asked, sticking her thumb into her mouth so she could nibble on the side of it.

Daryl turned his gaze from RickyJo's face to the rumpled bed beside her. He felt like he could write her a million word essay on what was wrong. Everything. That's what was wrong. The thought of what had gone on in the bed she had just climbed out of all night long made Daryl sick to his stomach. He shuffled his feet, shifting his weight from one leg to the other.

"Maybe it would be better if you didn't hug me anymore," he suggested, "since yer married to Merle."

"Oh," she said. RickyJo didn't have any words for how sad that made her feel. And Daryl's statement left her even more confused about her interaction with him the day before. He had been more than happy to hug her then. She felt her eyes start to fill with unshed tears and the tears made her angry at herself for being weak. She was also starting to feel rather angry with Daryl, for telling her he loved her one second and treating her like she had the plague the next. One of her hands balled up into a fist, her nails cutting into her palm. She pointed towards the door with the other hand. "Get the fuck out of here!," she cursed, sobbing and choking on the words as she spit them out.

Seeing RickyJo cry was so much worse than seeing anyone else cry. She tried so hard to hold in her tears that always looked like it was physically painful for her when they spilled out. When the first one streaked down her cheek Daryl felt his resolve shatter instantly. He had no idea what he was being so mean to RickyJo when the person he was really mad at was himself.

"M'sorry," he insisted as he tried to gather her up into his arms. She jerked her body roughly, throwing a hard elbow into his ribs. Next he tried putting his hand on her shoulder but she slapped it away, the flat of her hand meeting his wrist with an audible crack of flesh on flesh. Not yet fully discouraged, Daryl started to take another step in her direction. When he saw RickyJo ball up her fist he stopped. Not only did he not want to get into some sort of physical altercation with a pregnant woman, he was also well aware of the fact that she punched harder than most men he knew and had no qualms about laying his ass out flat if she thought he deserved it.

Merle had been on the recieving end of her anger more than once over the years. He had a bad habit of not knowing when to keep his big mouth shut. Daryl's personal favorite was the time his brother made a few extremely uncouth racial comments about RickyJo's neices without knowing that she was standing right behind him. Merle got a broken nose for his troubles. And to add insult to injury she had kicked him out of her apartment for the better part of a week until he apologized by taking her and both the girls to the park to feed the ducks.

"Sorry?," she spit, "yer not as sorry as you will be if ya put yer hands on me again."

A few seconds later the door to the apartment was swung open. RickyJo turned her back and wiped up her face as best she could. Crying in front of Daryl was bad enough. She didn't want everyone else to see her in her worst moment.

"Aunt Ricky!," Toby cried out, "Yer finally awake!" The boy rushed over and wrapped his arms around her waist while his dog circled them, knipping at their legs and ankles. RickyJo laughed, glad she didn't have to force herself to put on a happy face. Pulling back the boy yanked a gun out of the holster on his leg that looked bigger than he was. "Uncle Merle said I can borrow this one," he announced proudly, "It's my job to stay here and keep an eye on everything." RickyJo put her hand out, pointing the muzzle of the gun away from her face. Her eyes flicked towards Merle, who had come in the door behind the boy. He looked like he was holding back his own laughter.

"Stop being a fuckin' idiot with that gun Toby!," he hollered at the boy, only sounding about half serious. RickyJo could hear more people coming down the hall and she looked to see who it was. Her neices filed in along with the other boy that had eaten dinner with them the night before, Morgan's son Duane. The last two people were the man and the pregnant girl RickyJo recognized from the infirmary. The man had the girl in his arms. He carried her in and set her down carefully on the couch, like she was made of glass and might shatter if he dropped her. There was also a boy with them that RickyJo hadn't met yet. He was wearing a sherrif's hat and had a sour look on his face.

RickyJo observed the small group, noticing that the men all looked like they were geared up for world war three. Merle had a metal sleeve over his arm with a wicked looking knife on the end of it. He had a handgun in a holster on his waist and a sniper rifle slung over his back by a strap across his chest. Daryl's crossbow was on the table and as she watched he picked it up and slung it and sheath of extra arrows over his shoulder. The man that carried the pregnant girl in was also strapped with a large machete and several loaded guns.

Merle ticked his chin at her, nodding towards what served as the kitchen area of the apartment. He spoke quietly to RickyJo to keep everyone else from hearing them as he explained what was going on. There was a group of rough looking men camping somewhere close to town. He and Daryl and Rick and some other men were going to _take care of them._ RickyJo assumed this meant kill them and it sent a shiver up her spine.

"I want you and the kids to stay here and keep the door locked until we get back," Merle told her. He had noticed RickyJo's eyes getting larger as he spoke. His intention had not been to scare her, but he had never held important information back from her and he didn't intend to start now. "Okay?," he asked. RickyJo bobbed her head up and down.

"I can do that," RickyJo assured him, trying to sound more confident than she felt. She understood that some sort of disease had spread and a lot of people had died. Enough that the normal functions of society had broken down. But beyond that she hadn't given a lot of thought yet to the sort of people that might be left alive. Bad people. People that might use the absence of government and law enforcement to their own disgusting advantages.

Merle nodded. He felt like he ought to be glad RickyJo was so willing to stay put and babysit the kids and Rick pregnant girlfried. Before the flu RickyJo would have never even thought about staying behind while he went out to hunt down some trouble making men. But instead he found himself wishing she was well enough to come along. After they got separated from the group it was the two of them against the world for a time. He had learned to trust her to watch his back in a way he had never trusted anyone before or since.

TWD

Sitting around inside Merle's apartment got boring in a hurry. The kids pulled a few extra chairs around the table and started up a card tournament. RickyJo sat with Beth on the couch with Toby's dog between them. The conversation between them was awkward at first, neither of them really knowing what to say. But after a few failed attempts at small talk RickyJo finally just asked the younger woman to tell her everything she knew about what the group had been through so far.

Beth's stories only lasted so long and she only knew so much. Spending the day cooped up inside the apartment was boring and boredom led RickyJo to worry too much about the men that were outside the walls. She didn't know how long it might take them to hunt down another group but when the light outside started fading she really started to get scared. Toby was up making peanut butter sandwiches for everyone while his dog sat near his feet looking for an opportunity to jump up and steal one. RickyJo crossed and uncrossed her legs a few times in a row. Then she finally got up and started pacing back and forth across the apartment. Beth caught her by the hand as she passed by.

"Sometimes they're gone overnight but they always come back," the girl said, offering the other woman up a smile. Letting go of RickyJo's hand Beth went back to rubbing and scratching at the stretched skin of her stomach. Stopping her pacing for the moment, RickyJo reached above Toby's head and rummaged around in the cabinets until she found what she was looking for. Heading back towards Beth she deposited a large can of coconut oil in what was left of the girl's lap. Beth smiled and thanked her, yanking up her shirt and dipping into the can for a handful of the soothing lotion.

"Toby," Carl called out, "I think you're burning the toast."

"I'm not making toast," Toby hollered back.

The kids laughed and went back to the board game they were playing. But RickyJo stopped her pacing and sniffed at the air. Carl was right. It did smell like something was burning. In fact the smell was making her crave a cigarette in the worst way even though she knew that smoking was no better for the baby inside her than the whiskey she had refused the night before. The smell reminded her of the fall on her grandfathers farm when he would rake all the leaves into one giant pile and then dump them shovel by shovelfull into the burn barrel.

Something somewhere was burning. And since they didn't have the windows open RickyJo was scared that something was on fire inside one of the other apartments in the building they were in. With long purposeful strides she headed for the door to the apartment. Putting her hand on the knob to turn it made her yelp. The unexpected heat hadn't burned her as much as just startled her. Looking down she noticed that small curls of smoke were snaking in under the door frame.

"Hey!," RickyJo shouted to get everyone's attention, "We need to get out of this building I think there's a fire." Her words had the desired effect. The kids started quickly gathering up their things. Beth was leaning over her swollen belly struggling to get her shoes on. One of RickyJo's neices darted over to help her, pulling the laces snug and tying them in big floppy bows. RickyJo followed her example and kicked off the slippers she was wearing. There was a pair of well worn combat boots next to the door that she knew must be hers. She shoved her feet inside and hurried to tighten the laces.

Toby had disappeared into his room and he reappeared a few moments later dragging three backpacks with him. RickyJo could guess what they were without asking. There were slim sleeping bags rolled up and fastened under the bottom of the bags that looked to be packed as full as they could be without making them too heavy to carry. They were bugout bags. Inside there would be water and water purification tablets, energy bars, a sturdy can opener, a change of clothes that included a few pairs of extra socks, a rain poncho, a tarp large enough to serve as a tent, rope, matches and lighters, a well stocked first aid kit, and if they had packed well loads and loads of wet wipes.

RickyJo slung the bag that Toby shoved at her onto her back and tightened the straps. She had only been thinking that they needed to get outside but once he appeared with the bags she remembered what might be waiting for them beyond the safety of the walls. Toby left his own bag at RickyJo's feet and shoved the third one at Carl, who was the largest of the kids that were gathered in the apartment. Merle had packed the bags with each person's body weight in consideration. That meant that the one Carl was pulling on was going to be too heavy for him. It was meant for Merle to carry and had the tent and most of the extra ammunition inside. They would end up having to take turns with it but Carl could manage it for as long as it would take them to get out and away from the burning building. Toby flew around the apartment grabbing guns and knives from so many hiding places it would have made RickyJo laugh if the situation wasn't so frightening.

"Everyone ready?," she asked. There were few nods in response. Duane and Cassie were on either side of Beth, holding her steady between them. RickyJo wrapped a towel around her hand and grabbed the doorknob. Twisting it, she eased the door open slowly. Even through the small crack the fire licked inside and she had to lean out of the way to keep her hair from being singed off. A huge puff of smoke leaked in and several people started coughing. RickyJo snapped the door shut.

"This way," Toby hollered, "We can go out into the patio and over the wall."

It wasn't until they had all crowded into the small outdoor garden area that RickyJo saw just how serious their situation had been. The entire roof of the building was blazing and the flames were licking down the sides of the building. Even as they watched one of the windows on the top floor exploded from the heat and they had to put their arms up to protect themselves from a shower of hot glass. They were outside but the next problem was going to be getting everyone over the brick wall. It was tall and topped off with enough barbed wire to discourage anyone that was thinking about sneaking into town that way. As RickyJo looked around at the small group which included a wildly barking dog and a very pregnant woman she started to get really frightened.

RickyJo snagged the cop hat from Carl's head and held it over her mouth and nose to protect herself from the smoke. She ran back inside the apartment and grabbed all the rugs and floormats she could manage. The mat by the front door felt the thickest so she tossed that over the barbed wire first. The two thinner rugs she threw on top of the first one to give it more padding. Duane and Toby were already dragging chairs over for them to climb on. Getting over the wall was going to be difficult but RickyJo knew if the first person made it over easily it would be encouraging for everyone else.

After tossing the bags over, RickyJo called to her older niece. The girl wasn't as tall as she was but Cassie was tall and agile enough to make it over the wall easily if someone gave her a boost. "Cassie, yer first." Cassie nodded and stepped forward. She threw her bow and arrows over first but kept her rifle on her back.

Carl stepped forwars and climbed into the chair that RickyJo wasn't standing on. When Cassie climbed up, both he and RickyJo gave her a boost. She cleared the bared wire easily and called to them once she was safe on the ground.

"There's walkers out here! We have to hurry up!" Duane rushed forward next, unable to stand the girl that he considered to be the closest thing to a sister he had being left alone to fight whatever dead were coming at her. Duane fumbled a little more at the top of the wall than Cassie had but still managed to make it over without any major mishaps. Desiree went next. She was so light it was easy to lift her much higher in the air.

"You next," RickyJo told Carl, "I want you on the ground to help Beth when she comes over." Toby took Carl's place and together he and RickyJo gave the boy enough of a boost to clear the wall. The smoke inside the building was getting thicker. RickyJo could hear the sounds of people screaming over the crackling fire. Her heart was racing and she was covered in sweat. Another window shattered above. This time someone jumped out of it. The sickening crunch of his bones breaking was followed by the man's loud howls of pain.

"Now you," RickyJo said, gesturing for Beth to step forward. The girl's eyes were wide with fear. She was clutching her swollen stomach. She looked at least ten years younger than she had inside the apartment earlier, like a child that had shoved a pillow up her shirt to play at being an expectant mother. The howls of the man that had jumped out the window were upsetting Toby's dog. It was howling and barking so loud RickyJo could barely hear herself think. Beth looked like she was on the verge of hysterics.

"I should wait here," Beth said, taking a few steps back from the chairs that RickyJo and Toby were standing on, "Rick's going to come and get me." RickyJo cursed under her breath. It was going to be hard enough to get Beth over the wall. If they had to force her it was going to be impossible. She jumped down from the chair and seized Beth by the arm to keep her from running back inside the smoke filled apartment. With her other hand she smacked the girl soundly across the face.

"You can't wait here," RickyJo hollered into her face, "if you stay here you're going to die." Beth nodded as RickyJo dragged her over to the wall. She shoved her up into the chair and screamed at her to climb. Beth made it to the top of the wall, almost falling backwards when she cut her arm on an exposed section of the barbed wire. But Toby steadied her with his hand on her hip and she managed to climb the rest of the way over. Everyone else had simply jumped down from the top of the wall and landed on their feet. There was no other choice.

The kids were busy fighting off the walkers that the screaming and the barking had drawn in. So Beth closed her eyes and jumped. She landed on her feet but her knees buckled under the weight of her pregnancy. She fell back and fell down hard on her behind. As soon as she managed to climb to her feet she knew she was in trouble. Her pants were soaking wet almost all the way to her ankles. She broke her water when she fell. The pain wrapped around her middle like a ring of fire. Beth fell to her knees and began to scream.

"Now we have to get Snoop over," Toby hollered. RickyJo took one look at the wild barking dog and thought just about the most horrible thought she ever had in her life. _Fuck that damn dog._ But the look on Toby's face would not allow her to speak the words aloud. She raked her hands through her hair trying to think of any way possible to get the dog safely over the wall.

"Get a blanket," she finally hollered. Toby went dashing into the apartment and reappeared with one of the quilts from the bed. RickyJo didn't think about it at the time but somewhere in the back of her mind it registered that the quilt was one her grandmother made and she was glad it wasn't going to get burnt. RickyJo had no time to play games with the dog. She trapped it under the blanket and hauled it up off the ground as it thrashed and fought. Toby scrambled to the top of the wall without assistance, making it look easy. RickyJo handed him the dog and he tossed the beast over his shoulder like he was Santa Clause. Then he disappeared over the other side of the wall.

There was only one person left for RickyJo to get over the wall. Herself. This seemed easy enough after what she had just done but when she stepped up onto the chair her legs and arms were already shaking. Her thigh cramped up so hard that she almost fell. A huge boom sounded from inside the apartment, bringing with it a new rush of flames that licked up over the ceiling. RickyJo took a deep breath and reached for the top of the wall. It seemed further away than it had been even moments before. Her arms felt like jello and she had no idea how she was going to manage to pull her own weight not only up but up and over the top of the barbed wire. Beth was screaming on the other side of the wall. Toby's dog was loose again and barking. Everyone was yelling and screaming for her to hurry up.

RickyJo grabbed for the wall one more time, willing herself to have the strength to make it over. She felt the wire biting into her palms as the weight of her body pulled her back down towards the ground. Then suddenly the top of the wire was flying towards her face. Someone was lifting her from below. When she got to the top of the wire she cast a quick look down before she jumped down the other side. All she saw was a man with a bandana tied around his nose and mouth.

Almost as soon as she was on the ground the masked man leaped down beside her. He yanked down the hanky and RickyJo was so happy that tears sprung into her eyes. She threw herself into Daryl's arms and hugged him like she hadn't seen him in years. He hugged her back, making the embrace fierce but brief. Then he leaned down and gathered Beth up into his arms.

"Come on," he said, gesturing with his head, "I know where ta go."


	48. Chapter 48

Five Minute Window

Chapter 48

Daryl stood on the front porch of the worn down cabin, smoking one of the last cigarettes he had. He heard someone exit the cabin but he didn't turn to see who it was. A moment later RickyJo was beside him. She reached for the lit cigarette in his hand. He let her take it without objection even though he knew she probably shouldn't be smoking. She took one long drag, blowing it out and looking down at the small burning stick between her fingers like it had betrayed her.

"Fuckin' smoke don't even taste good," she complained as she thrust the cigarette back in Daryl's direction. She smoothed her hair back from her head and crossed her arms. Daryl could tell she had made some attempt to clean up but there was still blood crusted around her fingernails from helping Beth bring her baby into the world.

"Everyone asleep in there?," Daryl asked. He ticked his head back over his shoulder towards the inside of the cabin. The place wasn't ideal, especially since those men knew where it was. But it had been the closest place Daryl could think of to go. Beth wouldn't have made it much further and having her baby out in the open woods would have been a death sentence for all of them. Even inside the cabin with a rag to bite down on she had made too much noise. Daryl and Toby had to stay outside and kill the walkers her wails were attracting. They piled the bodies up around the place, hoping that the smell of death might mask the smell of blood coming from inside.

RickyJo nodded but she didn't speak. She stared up into the night sky. Her body was so still and silent that Daryl didn't realize she was crying until he saw her lift her hand to wipe her eyes. He reached across the space that separated them and placed his hand on her shoulder. She didn't shrink away from his touch but she didn't lean into him either. Instead she turned her head and looked down at his hand like she was surprised to see it there.

"I thought you didn't want me touchin' you anymore?," she whispered. Her voice was unsteady and it wavered as she spoke. Her words cut like a knife, slashing a hole straight through the center of Daryl's chest. He deeply regretted the way he had spoken to her earlier that day. He regretted it so much that he had nearly caught himself on fire making sure that the angry words he spoke to her wouldn't be his last.

Daryl moved quickly, wrapping his arms around the woman and crushing her against his chest. He flicked the stump of his cigarette away and ran his fingers through her hair. Her arms were crushed between them until she moved them down and placed her hands on his lower back, pulling his body closer to hers. Her damp cheek rested against his shoulder and her lips were so close to the sensitive skin of his neck that he could feel her breath.

He wasn't sure who made the first move. All Daryl knew it that suddenly they were kissing. And not a little gentle peck on the lips. His tounge was exploring her mouth, swirling around hers as she gripped the back of his t-shirt with her hands. Her hips were grinding against his already throbbing erection.

She didn't remember anything that had gone on between them after the turn. And not much before. Which meant there was a very good chance she didn't remember what sex with a man felt like. The idea of having her for the first time again made Daryl's dick twitch in his pants. Against his better judgement he slid his hand down the back of her pants, entering her from behind with the tip of one thick finger. RickyJo let out a little squeak of surprise. Her body went stiff but she didn't pull away. Instead of immediately backing off as he would have done in the past, Daryl grinned and adjusted his hand. She might have forgotten but he had slept with RickyJo enough times to know exactly what she liked and how she liked it.

The tip of his thumb pressed against her ass and two of his fingers pushed hard inside her slick cunt. He only had to thrust inside her a few times before her knees started buckling as her legs refused to hold the weight of her body. Daryl yanked his hand back out of her pants and kissed her again, his arms around her waist to keep her upright. He had been in such a hurry to get his hands on her that Daryl hadn't stopped to think about where he could take her to finish what he had started in the open air of the porch.

Inside the cabin wasn't an option. The kids were sprawled out all over the place in there. Beth and Cassie were sleeping in the only bed the place offered with Beth's tiny newborn son nestled between them. The only other option was the shed. The small dirty space didn't exactly scream romance but it was better than nothing. Daryl pulled his mouth away from hers and ticked his head in the direction of the shed. RickyJo glanced towards it, her eyebrows arching up. She appeared a little hesitant but since she hadn't refused him outright Daryl took her hand and pulled her down the steps of the cabin.

The inside of the shed smelled strongly of alcohol and was much messier than Daryl anticipated. He gathered up the empty glass jars that were scattered around the place, tossing them as quietly as he could inside a dirty cardboard box. Shrugging off his leather jacket he shook it out and laid it down to cover the dirt floor. RickyJo grasped his arm and pulled him back. She lifted the jacket and grabbed a giant chunk of broken glass that he had missed. The edge of it was wicked sharp and she was glad she spotted the moonlight glimmering off the glass before she or Daryl got cut on it. Tossing the glass chunk to the side she reached down and grasped the hem of her shirt. She yanked it up over her head and set it down in the cleanest looking spot possible.

Hooking her hands inside the waistband of her pants she wriggled her hips and shrugged them off, pushing them down and scrunching them around her ankles. Removing them completely would have required taking her boots off and she wasn't keen on walking around in broken glass barefoot. She wasn't sure what strange spell had come over her and made her lose control of her common sense. Escaping from a burning building followed by the intensity of helping Beth give birth to her son had left RickyJo feeling very tightly wound and in need of a release. She still wasn't sure how to define the new and confusing relationship she had with Daryl. All she knew was she cared deeply for him. That hadn't changed. And she felt a strong pulling need to form some kind of connection with him. She wanted to feel like she wasn't alone in the world, even if the feeling only lasted for a short time.

Daryl placed his hands on her hips, easing her down onto the floor before he kneeled between her parted thighs. RickyJo tugged at the hem of his shirt and he allowed her to pull it over his head. She tossed it on top of her own shirt before grabbing his shoulders and pulling him towards her. The fabric of his pants was rough against the insides of her thighs but the skin of his bare chest was warm.

Their kisses were more frenzied, sloppier and rougher than they had been on the porch. She nipped at his lower lip, grazing it with her teeth when she felt his hand slip between her legs. There was none of the tentative hesitation in his movements that she remembered from before. He was confident and sure in the way he touched her and she found it easier than she would have imagined to lay back and let him take control. She only tensed up when he sucked too hard on the overly sensitive skin of her breasts.

"They're tender," she whispered between her hard breaths. Moving his head back, Daryl blew on her nipples instead of sucking on them. Between that and the two thick fingers he was thrusting inside her soon he had her arching her hips up off the hard dirt floor in time with his movements. RickyJo was too far over the edge to notice when he unfastened his pants. Suddenly Daryl's hand was gone and his fingers were replaced by something much larger and harder. He eased himself inside her. Even when she was the one initiating the penetration, she had always been a tight fit and had a tendency to clench when he first entered her. He wasn't worried about hurting her. She was ready and more than wet enough to make it good for her. He was worried about blowing his load, which unlike hurting her, actually had happened on more than one occasion. That was before he got used to the sensation of her tight walls clamping down around him the moment he sunk in.

She whimpered and Daryl took a deep breath, feeling the tight squeeze that he knew was coming. He waited for her to relax before he started moving. With her pants wrapped around her ankles and him lying on them, her legs were pinned beneath his body. Daryl's hands found her wrists and he pushed them to the floor on either side of her head. From the hard pump of her hips he could tell she was enjoying the sensation of feeling somewhat overpowered as much as he was enjoying the feeling of having control over her. Her hands slid down until instead of holding her by the wrists, his fingers were entertwined with hers.

She came undone around him, her walls shuddering and her thighs quivering. But it wasn't until she moaned his name that Daryl found his release. He came hard and stayed inside her as long as he could, riding out his orgasm with a few gentle pumps. He kissed her cheeks, her eyes, her lips. He kissed her until she laughed and nipped at his lower lip again. When he sat up started tugging his pants back up he heard the crunch of leaves outside the doorway of the shed.

"Not so fast," a voice warned Daryl. Before he could grab for his crossbow the barrel of a gun was shoved into his face. It was dark out. But there was enough light from the moon for Daryl to see that his worst fear had come true. The men had he followed to the cabin had returned. Two of the men grabbed Daryl and tossed him to the ground. Before he could even think to react they began kicking and hitting him. The man that had spoken to him disappeared inside the shed and he heard RickyJo scream once before her cries were muffled.

Her pants were still tangled up around her ankles. And the man that was preparing to rape her was kneeing on them, rendering her legs useless. She had seen the man somewhere before. As she struggled with him the memory came flooding back to her. She had been on a run with Jessica and two other women. They spent the night talking and braiding each other's hair on the roof of a building. When they were getting ready to leave the next morning, this man and some others had approached them in a parking lot. Most likely he had been planning to do the same exact thing to her then that he was preparing to do now. But the last time he had been too slow.

RickyJo's mind spun and time seemed to slow down around her. She could feel the pain in her wrist as the man on top of her twisted it. He was fumbling with his belt, most of his weight already on top of her. But that seemed like it was happening to someone else. Someone far away from her. All she cold focus on was the memories. They were all flooding back to her. The sickening smell of burnt hair when she held a hot pan to the stump of Merle's wrist. The dead. So many of them that she had put down with a knife or an arrow to the head. And the living. She had killed plenty of them too. Working for the governor. And then he had been one of the men she killed. After he raped her she had put the spike heel of her shoe through his one remaining eye. She sat at the table drinking his liquor while she watched him bleed to death.

 _Never. Never again._

The words penetrated the fog of her mind. Her breathing slowed and she stopped fighting with the man on top of her. RickyJo fell back onto the dirt floor of the shed, pretending she had fainted. Once the man released her wrists she reached to her right. The chunk of glass was sharp. It cut her palm when she gripped it. Ignoring the pain, she swung her arm in a quick controlled motion. Before the man on top realized that her faint had been fake, his throat was slit and RickyJo was on top of him stabbing him in the crotch.

RickyJo clambered to her feet. She yanked up her pants and stuffed her boobs back in her bra. Her gun was inside the cabin. But Daryl's crossbow was leaning against the wall near the entrance of the shed. She snatched it up and used both hands to string the bow back, cursing him in her mind for refusing to use a bow that came with an automatic crank. Blood dripped down from the palm of her hand that had been cut with the glass.

Two men were left alive and neither of them noticed when she appeared in the doorway of the shed. They were both too busy kicking the shit out of Daryl. RickyJo clicked her tounge to get their attention. The larger of the two got an arrow through the eye the moment he turned to look at her. She rushed the other man, hitting him hard with the crossbow before he fell to the ground with her on top of him. He was heavier and stronger than her but the air had woofed out of his lungs when he hit the ground, temporarily stunning him. RickyJo grabbed him by the hair and slammed his head against the ground until most of the hair she was gripping ripped from his head.

Adjusting her stance so that she was straddling the man's chest, RickyJo wrapped her hands around his throat and squeezed. His legs kicked and his hands came up to claw and her arms but she didn't let go until the man was still and there was no life left in his body. Climbing to her feet she took the rest of her anger and frustration out on the man's body, stomping his head in with her boot until it was nothing but a messy bloody pile of gunk. She kept kicking and stomping on him until Daryl climbed to his feet and pulled her away.


	49. Chapter 49

Five Minute Window

Chapter 49

"We have to go. Now."

Michonne had already repeated the phrase several times over. But she added the last word in the hopes that it might bring Jessica up and off her knees. Woodbury was safe because there were no unfilled cracks between the buildings for the walkers to slip through. Unforturnately this meant every building in town was connected. There was no way to stop the fire once it started. Michonne was fairly sure those men had started the fire. The ones they had been tracking from that little shack in the woods. They probably only meant to cause a small diversion. Not even the most evil people in the world would start a fire with the intention of burning and entire town and most of a forest down. Or maybe they would. It was hard to say what people were capable of these days.

The wind was shifting. Michonne could feel it. And if it shifted any more the slight heat they were feeling from the large fire was going to consume them. She leaned forward and tugged on the sleeve of Andrea's shirt. The woman was kneeling on the ground next to RickyJo's cousin Jessica, trying to offer the woman what comfort she could. Her entire family had just been burned alive. Her daughters. Her cousin that was more like a sister to her. The only person crazy enough to go in after them was Daryl. And he hadn't come back out. No one had made it out. The doorway had collapsed behind him after he entered the building.

"We've got to move. If she won't come we either have to leave her or drag her with us," Michonne anounced. Andrea nodded. She rose to her feet and started pulling on Jessica's arms, trying to force the woman into a standing position. Michonne spun around, hearing the shuffle groaning steps of a walker when it was almost too late. She sliced it in half with her sword. Not only was the fire itself a danger. The light and noise were drawing in every skinbag in a ten mile radius. They couldn't wait on the guys to show back up any longer. They had to leave or all three of them were going to die.

"We have to wait for Morgan," Jessica pleaded, "He said he was coming back." She still wasn't climbing willingly to her feet but at least she was talking instead of moaning and rocking back and forth on her knees in the dirt. Michonne hated to act in a way that she knew was going to be taken as harsh and uncaring. But if she didn't get Jessica up and moving the woman was going to die. And they might die with her.

Michonne stepped forward. She cocked her hand back and slapped Jessica across the face. Not hard enough to leave a mark. Just hard enough to startle her a little. Get her adrenaline going.

"If we don't move now we are going to die," Michonne said, spacing out the words as she gripped Jessica by the shoulders. "Would Morgan want you to die here waiting for him to come back?," Michonne asked her. Jessica shook her head. She gripped Michonne's forearms with her hands, using the leverage to pull herself up onto her feet. Andrea steeped forward and lifted Jessica's half empty pack up. She helped the other woman into it, tightening the straps over her shoudlers.

Any direction was as good as the next. As long as they were heading away from the fire they were going the right way. Once they started walking Michonne felt Andrea catch her hand. The other woman gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and a wink that Michonne could barely see in the dark. Without words she spoke the mantra that had become the couple's outlook on the strange new world they lived in. As long as we have each other we have everything we need.

It had taken a while for the two women to build up the trust between them again. Michonne was hurt and angry over what had happened between Andrea and the now long deceased governor of Woodbury. Because Andrea had ultimately been tortured by the man Michonne had a hard time expressing her anger. But eventually the two of them did what women do. They talked. And talked some more. And eventually made amends for everything bad that had happened between them. Andrea had never been attracted to a woman before. But the practical side of her had to admit that she had chosen the right time to develop a same sex attaction. No one wanted to get pregnant in the middle of the end of the world.

The night air felt colder than it was after the oppressive heat of the fire. After so much heartbreak the world had decided to give them a small break. All the walkers they encountered, many more than normal because the fire was drawing them in, were so entranced with heading towards the bright burning light that they completely ignored the three tired women that hurried past them in the dark. Just when Andrea was sure she couldn't take another step they found an abandoned car on the side of the road. The inside of it smelled strongly of death. But the girls were so tired that none of them cared.

TWD

Rick had Baby Judith in his arms. Morgan and Martinez had Hershel propped up between them. The man was passing in and out of conciousness from the amount of smoke he had inhaled getting Judith to safety. He had a gnarly looking burn on the side of his one good leg.

Merle lifted his own leg and stomped his boot against the smoldering fence panel. They had tried almost every possible exit out of town. The fire seemed to be one step ahead of them no matter which way they turned. He tried not to think about the fact that Daryl had punched him in the face and taked off inside a burning building after RickyJo. Or the fact that both of them and his unborn child were most likely dead. Toby. Cassie. Dez. He pushed them all out of his mind and concentrated only on the task in front of him. If he couldn't kick this fence in a lot more people were going to die. Including him.

The fence finally gave way. A walker lunged in and Merle stabbed it through the head with the metal attachment on his arm sleeve. He kicked the hole in the fence a little wider, making sure there would be enough room for them to squeeze Hershel through. Both the buildings on either side of the small group of men were on fire. It was like being slow cooked in an oven. Merle was soaked with sweat. Even his boots were sloshing sloppy wet inside.

They kept moving until the heat was gone. Morgan leaned Hershel up against a tree and let the man slump slowly to the ground. Then he peeled off his shirt and wrung it out, sweat drippin from the damp material and pooling up on the ground between his feet. Just when the men got a moment to breath the baby in Rick's arms let out an alarmingly loud howl.

"Shut that baby up!," Merle hissed, "Before every walker fuckin' hears her."

Rick bounced the girl, propping her up onto his shoulder and patting her back to try and soothe her. But he knew it was no use. She was hungry. And they didn't have anything to feed her. Her cries were only going to get louder.

"She needs formula," Rick announced. He racked his brain for somewhere, anywhere that they might be able to find some in a pinch. But they had already cleared out every baby store in the area. Every grocery store. Every mini-mart and 7/11. There was a huge stockpile of baby food and formula. Back in his apartment in Woodbury. Which was on fire.

"Fuck!," Merle cursed, "where are we gonna get that?"

"We've cleared every store in the area," Morgan added. He pulled his shirt back down over his head before squatting in front of Hershel and taking the man's wrist in his hand to check for a pulse.

"We've been every place except for one," Martinez announced. A look passed between him and Merle causing the man to curse again. This time it was under his breath as he kicked at the dirt. Merle knew what was about to come out of Martinez's mouth before the man even opened his stupid pie hole. "We're going to have to go into the city."

 **** Sorry this one was a little short but I wanted to post what I had instead of making it a long chapter and a longer wait. I plan to get back around to some cannon events (Terminus and Alexandria) eventually in this story but for now I want to see where it goes with the group being split up all over the place. Thanks to anyone that took the time to leave a review. ****


	50. Chapter 50

Five Minute Window

Chapter 50

The roof of the van dipped in slightly under the combined weight of their bodies but no one seemed concerned. Things that would have mattered in the old world, like scratches and dents and the resale values of cars, had no meaning in the apocolypse. The van was just a temporary solution. A way to get Beth and her newborn son away from the small cabin in the woods and to somewhere that they all hoped would be more secure.

Daryl adjusted the strap that held his crossbow onto his back, sticking the side of his thumb between his teeth to gnaw at the side of it. He didn't have to say that he wasn't totally on board with what they were about to do. RickyJo could read it in his body language. She adjusted the cheap sunglasses that she had swiped from a nearby convience store, pushing them up higher so that they rested on the bridge of her nose. Her body shifter loser to his, the knuckles of her hand brushing against his thigh.

The parking lot around the mall was thick with the shuffling bodies of the dead. There were too many of them to count. They could only hope that the inside of the large concrete building was far more clear than the outside. When they were kicking around ideas on where to go, Toby mentioned the mall. He had been there a few times with Merle, so he knew how to get inside. One of the service doors that the employees used had a lock that was easy to pick.

What they hadn't planned on was having to wade through an entire army of undead cannibals to get to the door. Now they were stuck. Out of gas. Out of food. Out of time before Beth's still un-named son got another belly ache and started wailing like he had back at the cabin. His crying made Toby's dog bark. And the loud high pitched wails of a newborn baby in combination with the barking of a dog was like ringing the dinner bell as far as the walkers were concerned.

"Why are there so many damn geeks here?," Toby asked as he scaled the dirty windshield of the van to stand on the other side of RickyJo, "No people here. No noise. Nothing to draw them in." RickyJo shrugged before she lifted her arm and wrapped it around the boys slim shoulders.

"I don't know," she admitted, "Instinct? Maybe they have some memory left of their lives before. That's what Milton thought." That was what the governor thought too. Because he wanted to believe there was something left of his daughter inside the rotting corpse he kept locked up in his closet. But RickyJo had gotten enough of her memory back now to remember that she didn't want to bring that sick twisted man up in casual conversation. Just thinking about him gave her a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Every night she saw that man in her nightmares. Ripping at her clothes. Kissing her. She longed for the peace that her temporary amnesia had given her. That was all gone the moment those men attacked her and Daryl inside the moonshine shed. Every sick horrible thing that she had done or that had been done to her came flooding back as she stomped her would be rapist to death in the dim light of the moon.

"Maybe they're here for us...," Daryl suggested before inserting the side of his thumb back into his mouth.

The clink of the passenger door to the van stopped the conversation. Carl climbed out carefully so that Toby's dog wasn't able to slip out the door behind him. The dog was dying to get out of the hot van, no doubt eager to run off and get into some fresh new mischief. Daryl was half tempted to let the damn animal go and hope they never found him again. He had always considered himself an animal lover but that fucking dog was more trouble than it was worth. If it wasn't barking and drawing in walkers it was stealing food or taking a shit in the worst possible place for a shit to be taken. As far as Daryl was concerned the damn dog was lucky they weren't totally out of food yet or the next thing on the menu was going to be roast Snoop.

"We are out of rags to use as diapers," Carl announced, "...and water."

"If we're doing this we might as well do it now," RickyJo said, her voice rising at the end of her statement making it sound more like a question. She glanced at Daryl to see what he thought. They either needed to make a try for it or start siphoning gas out of the cars in the parking lot and get the hell out of there before the large herd of roamers caught their scent. With half of them reeking like blood from fresh injuries being sniffed out was a distinct possibility. Even now there was a walker stumbling out of the woods behind them, heading towards the van. Toby climbed down from the roof of the vehicle and helped Carl kill it.

Daryl kept RickyJo in suspense a few moments longer as he stared out over the lot towards the building. He twisted his wrist so that he could bite at whatever was left of his thumb nail. The corner of RickyJo's mouth twitched up into a half smile. She recognized the look on Daryl's face. It was the serious look he got when he just about almost had something figured out.

"We just need a distraction," he finally said, pointing over to one corner of the parking lot where he hoped to draw most of the herd. If they could get the bulk of them away from the building, it would give them a clear path to the door that Toby had indicated was the best way to get inside.

"How about a car alarm?," RickyJo suggested. She remembered using one once but the circumstances were jumbled up in her mind. She had been climbing a ladder at the time with a bulky pack on her back. And the alarm was so loud it had made it hard for her to think. It had drawn the walkers in though. That she knew for sure.

"Most'a the batteries in these cars are dead," Daryl kicked back.

"The battery in this van is charged," RickyJo said. She was looking behind her, making sure that Toby and Carl weren't having a problem with the walker that they had stopped before it could get any closer to the van. It was already on the ground and Toby was wiping the gore from his knife onto it's shirt. When she turned back she saw Daryl's thumb was back in between his teeth. RickyJo didn't blame him for being nervous. The plan she was suggesting was the life or death equivalent to putting all their eggs in one basket and had the definite potential to get them all killed. But so did leaving and looking for a safer place, which was something they might never find.

TWD

The worst thing about the entire plan was that Daryl had to carry Beth. No one else was strong enough to carry the girl and still be able to move as fast as they were going to need to move. That meant he wasn't able to fight. Desiree had Beth's baby in her arms, wrapped carefully in an old quilt that RickyJo's grandmother had sewn. Daryl recognized it as the one RickyJo used to keep draped across the foot of her bed in her old apartment in Atlanta. How they came to be in possession of it now he had no idea.

Cassie had her bow and RickyJo had Daryl's crossbow, so they took up the point positions. Everyone knew that to fire a gun was to ensure that all of them were going to die sooner rather than later. The raging car alarm was keeping most of the walkers distacted. But that could change at any moment. Duane, Carl and Toby all had heavy backpacks strapped to their backs. Toby had a rope tied around his dog's neck that was attached to his belt. The dog was usually content to stay close to the boy unless spooked so the rope was just a precaution.

"Ready?," RickyJo asked. She glanced around, making sure she got a nod from everyone. Cassie shifted the baby in her arms, digging into her pocket with one hand to retrieve the asthma inhaler she kept on her at all times. She fired it off into her mouth with a quiet rush of air before shoving it back into her pants. Then she adjusted her grip on Beth's son, holding the baby securely against her chest.

"This is a terrible idea," Beth whimpered. She was still bleeding heavy from the birth of her son. Her face was drawn and pale. Beth had slender hips and birthing her son had not been easy on her. Daryl hugged her closer, scared in that moment not of making it through the parking lot of the mall but of what RickyJo was going to have to go through in several more months when it came time for her to birth the baby that was growing inside her.

"Close yer eyes and think 'bout names fer yer little ass kicker," he suggested to the young woman. Beth nodded and buried her face in his neck, clinging to him with what little strength she had left in her body.

No one gave a signal for them to start. Cassie took a few tenative steps forward and everyone else just started moving along with her. They stayed as close as possible with room in between them to fight the dead without getting tangled up together. Cassie was good with her bow. Much better than Daryl realized she was. She cleared a wide path between the haphazardly parked cars for them to manuever through.

They moved as quickly and as quietly as possible, any noise they might be making was muffled by the loud blare of the car alarm. Duane tripped once and almost fell, distracted by the walkers he was watching instead of looking where he was going. But Carl caught him before he fell. The boys made short work of any walkers that got in too close for the girls to use their bows on. More quickly than Daryl had guessed they made it across the parking lot.

Toby knelt down and started picking the lock to the service door. Standing still was worse than moving and Daryl felt the sweat dripping down his back as his anxiety increased. He set Beth down gently on her feet, gesturing for Cassie to help the woman stay standing. RickyJo shoved his crossbow at him, choosing to pull a large hunting knife from her belt and use that instead. She was putting on a brave face but Daryl could hear how hard she was breathing. Her body was still weak from the time she had spent drifting in and out of conciousness. She needed rest. Not to fight a half a dozen walkers.

The lock clicked and Toby twisted the door knob, pushing at the door to try and get it to open. That was when everything went bad. Something was holding the door shut from inside. It only opened a few inches. Just wide enough for Snoop to get his paw caught. When the door shut on the dog's foot he let out a terrible howl. This woke and scared Beth's son, who immediately started wailing like a tiny possessed demon. Every walked within earshot turned and started heading in their direction.

There was no point anymore in being quiet. Carl pulled his gun and started shooting. He hit walker after walker right between the eyes. But even his skill with a gun wasn't enough to help them. There were too many. Daryl twisted the doorknob and tried to shoulder the door open. He heard the crack of wood from inside, a telltale sign that someone had barricaded the door from inside. They were not getting in that way. Daryl kicked at the door in frustration.

They couldn't go back the way they came. There was no where to hide. Even Desiree was fighting now, having handed Beth's baby to her in the hopes that she could stop it from crying. Daryl moved, pushing past the kids to help RickyJo yank her knife out of the thick skull of a walker that it had gotten stuck in. There was a small opening, a break in the herd that was coming at them. He glanced back at Beth and her baby, feeling like the worst shit in the world for even thinking about grabbing RickyJo by the elbow and making a run for it. Her knife finally pulled loose and she turned her back to Daryl, preparing to stab another biter that was coming at them.

Toby was trying another door. This one had a dead bolt and he wasn't sure if there was any way to pick it. His dog was barking like crazy, making it hard for him to think. And the dog was still anchored to his belt, which meant every time the dog moved it was jerking him around. Just when he was about to give up hope climb inside the large trash compactor to hide Toby heard the noise of metal sliding on metal. There was a large garage sized door above and to the right of him. The type of door that slid open to allow semi trucks to back in and unload. And someone was opening it from the inside.

 **** This chapter included a loosely quoted conversation from Dawn of the Dead. Love that movie and I thought it might be fun to include some slight crossover action into this story. Big thanks to anyone that took the time to leave a review.****


	51. Chapter 51

Five Minute Window

Chapter 51

They were fine until the wind changed direction. The smoke from the fire quickly filled the space around them, hanging heavy in the air. Michonne tied a scarf around her face, covering her mouth and nose. Jessica and Andrea did the same. It helped to keep them from breathing in too much of the smoke but it did nothing to help their burning watery eyes.

Following the tracks had been Andrea's idea. They couldn't see much more than a few feet in front of them. Trying to navigate thick smoke without a path to follow would have left the three women wandering around in circles for hours. Andrea didn't have a destination in mind. She just knew the tracks would lead them in a straight line. A line that led somewhere further away from the fire and the smoke. Anywhere was better than where they were.

The three women walked all night. They didn't speak much. Each of them was lost in their own thoughts, trying to make some sense of the tragedy that had just been thrust upon them. In the very early morning the wind finally shifted back. Either that or they had finally walked far enough away that the smoke could no longer reach them. Jessica yanked the hankerchief down away from her nose and mouth. She stumbled off the tracks, coughing so hard she could barely keep her eyes open. The toe of her shoe caught on the metal edge of the railroad tracks. She stumbled and scraped her arms up on a throny bush before finally catching herself on the wide trunk of a tall tree. Bracing her hand on the uneven bark, she leaned forward and coughed until she was retching and vomitting up whatever was left inside her stomach. Her body struggled to rid itself of all the smoke she had inhaled during the night.

"We need water," Michonne croaked. Her throat felt like it was on fire. Her legs and feet had long since gone partially numb from walking so far and so long without stopping. What she wanted to do most in the world was to lie down in the grass and close her eyes. That was not a good sign. They needed to find a place to rest. And soon. Or the next small herd of walkers that happened by was going to pick them off one by one like fish in a barrel.

"Look at this," Andrea said. Forcing the words out made her go into a coughing fit that rivalled Jessica's. But as she struggled to regain control over her breathing, she pointed with her hand to a sign she had noticed on the side of the road. Michonne shuffled over, squinting her watering eyes to read the smeary black letters printed on the sign. The sun was just starting to come up, shining bright behind the sign and making it harder to read than it already was.

SANCTUARY

FOR ALL

COMMUNITY

FOR ALL

THOSE WHO ARRIVE

SURVIVE

Below the note there was a crude map. There was a spot in the middle of it where all the different railroad tracks met up. It was circled in red and above that was the word TERMINUS.

Michonne's first instinct was that she was looking at bait. This was a trap. And even if it wasn't, whoever put the signs up was probably long since dead. The signs looked old and worn from the rain and sun exposure. The first group of mauraders that saw this sign would have gone in and taken whatever and whoever they wanted. The rest of the group would have been killed.

"I don't think it's very far from here," Andrea said, standing up to look at the map now again now that she was done with her coughing fit. She glanced at the woman beside her. Before Woodbury, Andrea and Michonne had been alone together a long time. She was able to read the woman's opinion in her body languge as plainly as if she had spoken it out loud. Michonne thought following the map on the sign was a terrible idea. She thought they were walking into a trap.

"Mich," Andrea coaxed. She gestured towards Jessica, who was now collapsed on the ground next to the tree, leaning back against the trunk of it. The woman's eyes were rolling back in her head as she struggled to keep herself alert and awake. "We've got no water. No supplies. One granola bar left between the three of us. And we are all suffering from smoke inhalation. We have to do something."

TWD

"What kind of shit can babies eat?," Merle asked. He plunked a cardboard box down next to Hershel, not waiting for an answer to his question. Hershel turned and began pawing through the contents of the musty box, squinting his eyes in the dim light inside the gas station they had holed up in for the night. Merle wasn't sure if there was anything useful inside. He had been around Jessica's girls when they were little. But he only remembered her feeding them from her breasts or from little glass jars of baby food. He had never paid much attention to what they were eating or not eating. The only thing he remembered clearly was the time RickyJo had given one of the babies a bite of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Jessica had thrown a total fit. But Merle wasn't sure if that was because of the peanut butter, the jelly or if sandwiches themselves were bad for babies.

"She can eat this," Hershel announced, pulling a small jar of applesauce out of the box. Merle nodded. He had also seen a box of plastic utensils on the floor near the door to the office he had broken into. That's where he had found the food, hidden behind a stack of folding chairs. He grabbed the small box, pinning it against his body with his bad arm and ripping it open with his hand. He cursed under his breath when he saw it was full of plastic butter knives.

"Those'll work," Hershel told him. The man pulled one of the dull plastic knives from the box and began patiently spooning the sauce into Judith's mouth with the tip of it. She was hungry and Hershel was having a hard time keeping her from grabbing at the jar. The old man's leg was badly burned. He winced in pain every time he had to adjust his body. Merle let a string of curse words loose before he sat down next to the man and pulled the brat into his lap, holding her still so Hershel could feed her. How he managed to get stuck babysitting her and the old man while Rick, Morgan and Martinez went to scout for supplies he had no fucking idea. This volume ten walker alarm baby was Rick's fucking problem. Not his.

"You're good with her," Hershel joked, trying to lighten the mood. And he was only half joking anyway. The truth was Merle seemed much more confident holding such a young child than Hershel expected. He could tell Judith felt secure in the man's arms. "Have any of your own?," Hershel asked.

"Naw," Merle grumbled, shaking his head. He adjusted the little one in his lap so that his metal arm piece was further away from her. "The one that got burnt'up in the fire with RickyJo woulda been my first." Merle's voice was flat and the words were spoken without emotion. Like he was talking about the weather. He had been a horrible monster to everyone around him since the moment they escaped the firey remains of Woodbury. Hershel knew it was because the man was grieving. They had all suffered a great loss. But Rick and Morgan had been able to cry together. Merle had thrown a roll of toilet paper at them, called them both sissy ass bitches, and stormed from the room. In the morning, Hershel had asked the other men to leave him and Merle alone together in the hopes that he might be able to offer the man some small comfort.

"God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There will be no more pain, for the former things have passed away," Hershel quoted. He had forgotten the exact line of the passage but he knew it was from the book of Revelation. "She went on to a better place and took the baby with her. They're at peace now," Hershel soothed, "But there's still people here that need you."

Judith finally stopped opening her mouth for more food. She had been awake most of the night, fussing because of the hunger pains in her little belly that plain sugar water wouldn't ease. The little girl's eyes blinked shut and her head rolled back against Merle's chest. He sighed and shook his head at the baby. Then he gently moved her so that she could sleep cradled in his one good arm. Hershel waited quietly. He wasn't sure if the man was going to respond to what he had said. But if Merle was anything like his brother, trying to cajole him into talking about his feelings would only make him angry. Hershel leaned back and resloved to wait the man out. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Merle finally opened his mouth and spoke.

"Every hear the cherokee story about the two wolves?," he asked. Hershel shook his head even though he was quite familiar with the tale. Daryl had also been fond of it. And Hershel had heard the man telling it to the kids back at the prison on numerous occasions. "There's spose'ta be two wolves inside you. One is evil and angry, full of hate and violence. The other one's full of good shit. Peace. Love. Kindness and forgiveness... " Merle paused. He stared down at what was left of his right arm, his eyes going glassy and unfocused. Hershel knew he was lost in a memory. He hoped Merle was thinking about something good that had happened to him. The lord knew they had all been through enough pain to last a hundred thousand people the rest of their lives.

"RickyJo," Merle said, almost choking on the woman's name, "She was the only woman I ever met that fed the good wolf." Merle paused, swallowing hard a few times. Hershel could tell the man was struggling to keep control over his emotions. "Now she's gone. Daryl. Toby. Cassie and Dez. Why did they die instead of me? I ain't never done a single decent thing in all my life. RickyJo was never mine. She was Daryl's girl ever since they were kids. I knew that shit was gonna hurt him and I didn't care. I wanted her for myself."

"God still has plans for you," Hershel said. Merle snorted, nearly waking the sleeping baby in his arms.

"Plans to torture me some more," he suggested.

Merle had hit rock bottom before. But never like this. Even when he had been lying in a cell in central booking, his shirt covered in vomit because he was detoxing from whatever drug he had used too much of for too long. Even then he had known she would eventually come for him.

One time RickyJo got so mad at him she let him sit in jail for an entire week. The exact reason for her anger was something Merle couldn't remember anymore. He had pissed her off so many times it was hard to recall one specific instance. It had probably been something to do with that stuck up bitch girlfriend she used to have. What Merle did remember how relieved he felt when she finally showed up to pay his bail. He even recalled what she was wearing. He knew she must have come from work because she had been wearing a khaki colored suit with a low cut black shirt on under her jacket. Her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail. She was glowing with a fresh tan from fishing off the dock at her grandfather's cabin. All the counter cops in the place had been hanging around the front desk of the jailhouse, trying to make conversation with her. Of course she had been totally oblivious to it all, sitting with her long legs crossed and a stack of papers she was grading balanced on her knee.

She looked like an angel. Merle remembered that too. It was one of the many times he would have given anything to have her in his arms. He should have apologized far whatever he had done to her. Instead he hollered at her, asking her what in the fuck took her so long to come and get him. The rude inquiry earned him dirty looks from every pig in the place. But RickyJo just looked up at him and laughed. She took him home to her apartment and let him use her bathroom so he could soak in her big tub with the massaging jets while she made him dinner. Steak dinner. He remembered that too, because RickyJo had been pretending she was a vegan when her girlfriend was around and then smothering butter and bacon all over everything whenever she wasn't around. Merle could never figure out why RickyJo didn't just tell that bossy bitch to go piss up a rope.

This time she wasn't coming for him. Because she was dead. Daryl was dead. Everyone Merle had ever cared about gone as quick as a blink. He had hit rock bottom before. But never like this. Even at his worst moment he never wished he was dead. Until now.

Merle had been up for most of the night. Searching every cranny of the small convience store looking for liquor. Or drugs. Anything to take the pain away. He hadn't found so much as an asprin. But in the small office he searched that morning he had found something. Along with the food, whoever had been there before had hidden several bottles of strong prescription pain killers. Merle had almost given them to Hershel when he saw the man struggling as he tried to feed the baby. Giving them to Hershel would have been the right thing to so. The smart thing to do. But the numbing effect the drugs would have on his mind was too tempting to give up. Merle had no reason anymore to try and stay sober. No one that cared about him. He only took one pill this time. He told himself he would wait until they were somewhere more secure before he took anything more than that. But as he slid down the wall onto his back with Judith's small warm body snuggled against his, the pill he took made it so Merle was finally able to fall asleep.


End file.
